Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 298 | Entrepreneurship | 1

Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 298 | May 26 – June 1, 2023.

As an Entrepreneur, Shift Your Mindset:  How to ignore precedent in a world that’s obsessed with it.

By Robert Mesmer | Inc Magazine | May 31, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

People tend to expect a healthy dose of groupthink in politics. What they don’t realize is that the business world isn’t immune to herd behavior either.  New ideas are risky. Then again, risk is at the heart of doing business. We all have creative ideas, but it’s entrepreneurs that change the world by putting their perspective into action. That’s why it’s not enough to think differently. To break down walls in any industry, you have to do.

1. Shifting mindsets.  Innovation is often a matter of insight. In many businesses, that innovation is not what you’re delivering to customers, but how you’re doing it.
2. Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.  If you believe your idea stands on a firm foundation, you should give it a try.
3. Talk to everyone.  There’s nothing wrong with talking to people about your business ideas. It’s even a good idea to run things by your competition just to see what they’ll say. Though many would caution against sharing your ideas, you’ve got to remember that no one is going to implement your insight like you do. Besides, healthy competition will only make you better.  If people shut your idea down just because you’re trying something new, you don’t need to pay them any attention. But if someone comes to you with a well-reasoned critique, the opposite is true. No one can keep track of everything going on in their own company, let alone an entire industry. That’s why humility is so important in business.
4. Maximize value at every step.   When people talk about innovation, they often leave employee payout of the conversation. Most businesses really don’t do more than follow industry norms. But if you’re intent on breaking down walls, you have to look for opportunities to maximize value everywhere. Pay is no exception.  What matters isn’t what the job role does–it’s what the individual in front of you can contribute to your business. 
5. Doing business is an experiment.  No business owner really knows if they have a good idea until they put it into practice. Some ideas work well for some companies and completely fail in others.  So don’t ever become wedded to one idea. Think through what you’re doing and put it into practice.  Doing business is like running a bunch of experiments. If you try something and it doesn’t work, at least you’ve discovered that one idea sounds good in theory but doesn’t work in practice. That’s no reason to give up.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. People tend to expect a healthy dose of groupthink in politics. What they don’t realize is that the business world isn’t immune to herd behavior either.  
2. New ideas are risky. Then again, risk is at the heart of doing business. We all have creative ideas, but it’s entrepreneurs that change the world by putting their perspective into action. That’s why it’s not enough to think differently. To break down walls in any industry, you have to do.
3. How to shift the mindset to ignore the world of precedent: take innovation as is not what you’re delivering to customers, but how you’re doing it; be sure you’re right, then go ahead; talk to everyone about your ideas; maximize value at every step; and doing business is an experiment.

Full Article

(Copyright)

Topics:  Startup, Entrepreneurship