To Unlock Your Entrepreneurial Potential, Look Inside Yourself

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Entrepreneurship Section | 1

To Unlock Your Entrepreneurial Potential, Look Inside Yourself

By Rodger Dean Duncan | Forbes Magazine | April 8, 2024

Extractive Summary of the Article | Listen

The road to success in business—and in life—has always been strewn with challenges. But that’s okay, because overcoming challenges is much of what success is all about.  Some excellent—and very timely—advice can be found in SHINE: How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom.  Authors Gino Wickman and Rob Dube share disciplines that can help you stay sharp and energetic without burning out.

Wickman and Dube hold the view that, even in our rush-rush world, it’s possible to be driven and have inner peace. Virtually by definition, many entrepreneurs are driven to face the chaos and work really hard.

“Being driven is both a blessing and a curse,” Wickman says. “There’s some good and some bad stuff. The point is to accept it, embrace it, understand it, and most importantly, manage it. The driven are the creators of most things in this world. The blessing is that they are amazing visionaries in all industries. They are born with superhuman stamina and strength that, in the majority of cases, make things better.”  The curse, he says, is that with their intensity they do a lot of damage to themselves and the people around them.

“The driven are always ten steps ahead and can seem crazy to many,” Wickman says. “They wonder why people can’t keep up with them and why others get frustrated with them. The driven see what the rest of us don’t. When the driven person manages their driven nature properly it leads to more energy, greater impact, and peace. They begin to attract better employees, retain their best employees, have deeper trust and understanding for each other, and attract better customers and better vendors, all which lead to greater workplace/work life satisfaction and happier people.”

Dube says that when they raise the issue of love and fear in the workplace, head nod. “This resonates very quickly with driven entrepreneurs,” he says. “The reality is they are making their decisions from love or fear. Love is a heart-based decision, and fear is an ego-based decision. It’s important to understand that the ego creates fear and a structure that causes people to hang on to emotional attachments with things, people, and outcomes in life, leading to decisions that are not best for them.”

Fear-based decisions, he says, “stem from an internal block that needs to be removed. When the block is removed and a person lets go, their energy soars and they become more of their True Self. So, bringing awareness to the type of decisions they are making allows them to remove the blocks and shed layers, and then make more decisions from love—from the inside out—and be free. Making even 10% more love-based decisions will have a huge impact.”  Dube says most decisions are made from fear.   For driven entrepreneurs, Dube says, part of the love-based decision is a feeling—“Is this who we are as a company and, what do we want in our lives?”

“Driven entrepreneurs are focused on the short term,” Dube says. “They want everything now. They have a sense of urgency that causes them a great deal of anxiety. When they shift their mindset from short-term thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes, time slows down with the realization that there is time to get where they want to go. When time slows down, there is clarity. With clarity comes better decisions (love-based). Better decisions end up getting you there faster—and with a greater sense of inner peace.

Wickman and Dube also recommend writing what they call a “Who Am I Statement.”  “The ‘Who Am I Statement’ provides a picture of who you are, what’s important to you, and what you stand for,” Dube says. “It’s exhausting when we aren’t clear about who we are, and this drains our vibrational energy. People pick up on it. Once you become clear about who you are, everything becomes easier because you no longer are constrained by the suit of armor you have been wearing. Once the suit of armor is off and you are clear about who you are, you are free. It’s like running a race with the suit of armor versus shorts and a T-shirt.”  Dube says journaling can help people “unplug” from day-to-day pressures.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. The road to success in business—and in life—has always been strewn with challenges. But that’s okay, because overcoming challenges is much of what success is all about.  
2. Some excellent—and very timely—advice can be found in SHINE: How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom.  Authors Gino Wickman and Rob Dube share disciplines that can help you stay sharp and energetic without burning out.
3. According to the authors, many entrepreneurs are driven to face the chaos and work really hard.  A few of their advises are:  “Being driven is both a blessing and a curse, The driven are always ten steps ahead and can seem crazy to many,  they are making their decisions from love or fear – would be better if based on love; when they shift their mindset from short-term thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes, time slows down with the realization that there is time to get where they want to go; write who Am I Statement, and also ask 5 people to write your strenghts and weaknesses.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, Love, Decision-making, fear