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Cultivating a Growth Mindset: A Key to Student Entrepreneurial Success
As you start or resume college, your
entrepreneurial mind is already calculating ways to double, triple, or even
quadruple your income. You already decided you won’t be broke or short of money
in college; you’ll do business and make money. First of all, you’ve got a
golden mind there – don’t ever lose it. Secondly, being an entrepreneur as a
student is not as easy as it seems; you must prepare yourself ahead.
Furthermore,
you must cultivate a growth mindset to achieve entrepreneurial success as a
student. This not only ensures you achieve your goal but also enriches your
well-being and happiness as you start this journey. In this blog, therefore, we
will show you how to cultivate a transformative growth mindset with eleven
actionable steps. Even if you’ve been a student entrepreneur for a while, these
tips can help you as you battle your thesis with thesis helpers.
1.
How Do You Approach Challenges?
Identify Your Mindset
The first step is to identify your
mindset by considering how you tackle challenges in your education and at work.
Ask questions like, ‘How good am I with people?’, ' Do I work well with
people?’ or ‘Am I a natural leader?’ By looking at how you approach the world,
these questions help you determine whether you have a fixed or growth mindset.
This step is the first of many towards making significant changes in your
career, ultimately reimagining it.
2.
What Were You Good At in the
Past?
Next, consider your past self; what
came naturally or easily to you that might be hard for others? Or, is there
something you used to find difficult that has not become easier – or harder? If
it got easier, what did you do to change things and achieve such ease? By
asking these questions, you can be prompted to consider the effort and time
you’ve spent improving yourself.
3.
Understand That You Won’t Be
Good At Everything
In your entrepreneurial journey, you
must harness the power of ‘yet,’ understanding that you’re not good at every
skill – yet. However, that you’re not good now doesn’t mean you never will;
with diligence and perseverance, you can improve. The most successful people
are not those without a weakness but those who have realised their weaknesses.
Therefore, having a growth mindset is about understanding your weaknesses and
realising strengths yet to be developed.
4.
Be Open to Learning New Things
Challenge yourself to leave your
comfort zone and try something you’re presently terrible or not very good at.
For example, you could learn a new language, understand financial literacy,
learn the basics of economics, or pick up a new instrument. When you get
accustomed to the terrains outside your comfort zone, you’ll begin to develop a
growth mindset. Also, you’ll be more open to learning new skills and getting
proficient at other things.
5.
Learn from Others
A big part of cultivating a growth
mindset is looking at others who have succeeded in embodying one. Learn from
experts worldwide, or you can even stay close to home and learn from people you
know. You will always have opportunities to learn from others; endeavour to
take full advantage of those opportunities. As you do, examine their knowledge
and approach to challenges and consider how you can implement their tactics.
6.
Learn from the Success of
Others
The world is replete with stories of
people who have done impossible things against the odds. You may not even have
to look that far; some of them may be around you. Think about what they did,
how they succeeded, and what their success says about their ability to develop
their capabilities.
7.
Let Yourself Make Errors
Whether this is your first time trying
or not, you must understand that there will be errors. More so, give room for
errors and let yourself learn from those mistakes. Mistakes don’t mean
ineptitude; see them as part of the learning steps towards cultivating a growth
mindset. When you make mistakes, you can identify your weakness or lack of
understanding and improve on it.
8.
Feedback Helps
Always seek feedback from others
whether or not you have been successful in the project you embarked on. Seeking
feedback is a good way to cultivate and develop a growth mindset, as it helps
you realise areas you’ve developed. Also, they help you realise your
shortcomings and aspects of your entrepreneurial journey or life in general that
need improvement. Then, you can take their advice to heart and work on
yourself, setting actionable goals for improvement.
9.
Set Clear, Realistic Goals
There are many ways to determine if
you’re successful in a certain endeavour or not, including your personality,
circumstances, and intelligence. However, for things to work, you must be
deliberate in your decision-making and goals. Therefore, set realistic and
clear goals for yourself, and work diligently towards fulfilling them one goal
at a time. Moreover, setting clear goals helps give you a motivating challenge
that pushes you to strive for success in your endeavours.
10.
Be Patient with and Kind to
Yourself
In your entrepreneurial journey, you
must remember that you are your greatest cheerleader; if you’re down,
everything will be down. Therefore, putting yourself down at every misstep or
wrong decision not only leaves you depressed; it impedes your growth. Don’t
scold yourself for your errors; instead, respond as you would to someone who
failed a task you know inside out. Being mindful of how you respond to your
errors helps you identify and abandon thoughts linked to a fixed mindset.
11.
Don’t Be Afraid to Reset
Have you created a rock-solid plan you
don’t think can ever fail? You’re in for a rude shock as even the best-laid
plans; that’s how business and even life work. If, at any point, you realise
that an idea is not working, don’t be afraid to re-plan your course and start
over.
