7 Secrets for Mastering the Art of Entrepreneurship

13 min readOct 26, 2021

What comes to your mind when I say the word Entrepreneur? I think of Jules from the movie The Intern on Amazon Prime. A highly motivated go-getter. A self-made person in the truest meaning of the word, trying to juggle a family along with running her fashion brand, a startup venture she set up single-handedly.

You can tell that Jules loves her work too much and is very passionate about her business because she cycles to the office, personally take random customer calls, and designs campaigns on her own.

When asked to give tips to budding entrepreneurs to the students of Draper University, Elon Musk said, “I think it’s very difficult to start companies; it’s quite painful.” A friend of mine has a good phrase for doing a startup: it’s like eating glass and staring into the abyss. If you are wired to do it, then only do it, not otherwise. So, think of it this way — if you need inspiring words, DON’T DO IT!”

Discouraging much?!?!?!

A closer look at his statement tells that this is just a reality check. The glorification of entrepreneurs through cinema has made it aspirational and made it look all too easy. The rags to riches story to multimillionaires often fails to capture the sweat, blood, and tears behind their success.

What most people are interested in is, therefore, the idea of being an entrepreneur and not the act of it.

Stanford University economist Edward Lazear found in a 2005 study, published in the Journal of Labour Economics, that ‘variety in education and work experience was the most important trait that distinguishes entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs.’

Intuition, creativity, and forecasting can be seen as the three essential ingredients in entrepreneurial decision-making. These are also the main ingredients of any artistic endeavor. So conclusively, entrepreneurship is an art? And entrepreneurs are artists? In a way, yes.

In making decisions, an entrepreneur, much like a poet, gives ‘sense’ to the enterprise, provides its design and shape, and transforms its language beyond that of mere economics. Certain skills required for running a successful enterprise need to be practiced repeatedly, much like any art form, and it takes years to perfect the same.

We come to you with 7 Secrets for Mastering the Art of Entrepreneurship. Read till the end for a quick tip in Emotional Intelligence.

Let’s get started!

#1 Be Resourceful

Let us begin with a story by Jeff Bezos. As a child, he spent his summers with his grandparents at a ranch in South Texas. When at the ranch, his grandfather used to create the illusion for a four-year-old Jeff (who must have been a handful then, like all kids are) that he was helping his grandfather and was an indispensable part of his ‘team’ at the ranch.

Which, of course, was not the case because he was all of four, and the only thing he must have been good at was soiling his pants in mud!

His grandfather did this to keep him engaged. He recounts that his grandfather would do everything on his own and was a hands-on person. This experience became Jeff’s earliest lesson in entrepreneurship which was to be resourceful.

Many define being resourceful as making do with what is available, basically a best-of-waste kind of solution to every problem, but it is only an aspect of it.

Resourcefulness is a mindset, which enables creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. It is an essential trait for entrepreneurs as, irrespective of your field of business, you will be faced with situations that you are not prepared for. It may be a meeting with a difficult investor, you may suffer a loss at your business, or just anything under the sun. Such situations test your creativity, passion for your work, persistence, and your belief in yourself. Taxing? Sure.

Being resourceful is an attribute of some people inherent in some people. But psychologists see resourcefulness as a set of attainable skills and behavior known as learned resourcefulness. It is focused on self-control, eliciting a response to adversity, and putting the person to find the right solution.

Following are some characteristics of a resourceful person:

╺ Self Motivated

╺ Persistent

╺ Views Problem-Solving as a Process

╺ Self Efficient

#2 Work on Yourself

When you are an entrepreneur, you have to understand and embrace the adage that goes, ‘You cannot pour from an empty cup.’

You, being the founder and leader of an organization, are to be always available. Someone has a question, and you have to answer it. You are uncertain about a deal? Yes. But you will have to seem self-assured so that your team’s confidence does not take a beating. You have to lead by example, project worthiness, and set the bar rather high for the rest of your team.

One of the most important things you have to do is fill your cup to the brim and always keep it full to pour from it. You have to become the best version of yourself because of not just you, but many other people’s livelihood depends on your enterprise.

You can keep your cup full by continuously strengthing your mind, body, heart, and soul.

You should learn continuously and remain a student forever to keep your mind running smoothly.
Daily exercise and healthy eating go a long way in keeping you healthy.
Give some time to practicing your personal beliefs. You may worship a particular God or believe in some specific way of living. Practice that! It keeps your soul fulfilled.

And last but not least — Meditate. Regular meditation will keep your mind, body, heart, and soul in sync, and you’ll be an unstoppable force.

#3 Beware of The Company You Keep

As an entrepreneur, you will feel fear or apprehension at various stages of the journey of building your business. It could be an investment that you have to make, hiring a team, or selling a stake of your company.

When Elon Musk was starting Space X, he tried to work out the odds of success of his venture; they were less than 10%! His first two launches failed and cost him $90 million. The third and the successful launch cost him $10 million.

But even if he failed, he would have the satisfaction that he tried.

Moreover, a failure or success, just taking the step of launching Space X, would serve as a huge inspiration for future generations, and if not them; someone else would take the baton forward.

Acknowledging fear is the best way of dealing with it. Do you fear that this business plan would fail? Talk it out with your team. Develop a contingency plan instead of dropping the plan altogether.

Fear is only natural. This apprehension of something going wrong keeps us from making wrong decisions and prompts us to be calculative. But if you feel passionate about something and believe in it, you act on it, despite fear.

The trick is not to let it consume you. Your fear of failure cannot be the only force dictating your actions. You work around it and move ahead. Take a step, albeit a small one.

#4 Be Tenacious

Being an entrepreneur does not require you to be smarter than 95% of the people. It requires you to stand tall in the face of adversity when giving up seems to be the only option. Your tenacity towards your work will be determined by several factors, foremost being your passion and self-belief.

J.K. Rowling, very famously, got rejected by 12 publishing houses before Bloomsbury finally decided to publish Harry Potter. Through the tumultuous years of struggling to make it big as a writer and knocking at the doors of various publishing houses, not even once did she think that she should drop the idea. She believed that she would make it big. She battled depression and lived on the streets before releasing her first book. All this is because of her tenacity.

Fighting back in the face of adversity is the common thread that runs through the success stories of all innovators and entrepreneurs. Give yourself enough space to fail, get back up, dust yourself off and get at it again. Practice it at every chance you get, more so make it a way of life for following your passion and building your entrepreneurial venture.

Did you know that stress can result in biological alterations and increase disease susceptibility, resulting in “wear and tear”? Check these practical tips to maintain a balanced diet during stress and avoid stress eating.

#5 Have a Healthy Lifestyle

As an entrepreneur, you face challenges daily and have multiple sources of stress and anxiety. You invariably end up adopting unhealthy eating habits and lifestyles altogether to keep jitters at bay.

Feeling anxious? You smoke a cigarette or two. Long hours of work? One cup of coffee after the other will keep me awake. Hungry? Food Delivery apps now deliver round the clock, and I am so not cooking after a long day of work, ya!

Jordan Rubin, the CEO of Garden of Life, was on his last leg, had lost a lot of weight, and suffered from many health conditions. He decided to take a break and change his lifestyle altogether — switched to healthy eating, and began exercising the right way. He then started a supplement company based on the experience and research during his journey back to health.

Jordan’s story puts into perspective how focusing and attention to detail in your lifestyle can translate into your work ethic as an entrepreneur.

Following are some changes that you can make to lead a healthier lifestyle:

Adopt a more health-friendly diet. Include whole grains, fresh fruits, green vegetables, and other plant-based options. Having clean and plant-based diet rich in macro and micronutrients improves overall gut and organ health to enable you to absorb nutrients better.
Consume green leafy vegetables regularly. It will help in improving overall immunity levels. Which becomes all the more important given the Covid scenario.
Being an entrepreneur, you spend most of your time sitting long hours — attending meetings, making presentations, meeting clients, and the list is long. Did you hear that ‘Sitting is the new smoking? Nah, I just made that up. But you get the hint.

This lifestyle allows for little space for allocating time for exercise. But it is essential to dedicate at least 30 minutes every day to any physical workout.

If you cannot find time in your busy schedule, throw in cardio at work by taking those stairs instead of the elevator!

It is also important to take some time off from the hustle and bustle. You can pick up a hobby or two. Gardening maybe? How about growing a small kitchen garden where you can grow those green leafy vegetables? But seriously, take some time to recharge and connect with your family.

To read this amazing article on How to Maintain a Balanced Diet During Stress, Click Here.

#6 Be A Team Player

No creation in this world is a singular effort, and neither is your entrepreneurial venture. As an entrepreneur, you are essentially making a profit by owning and leading. The team you work with becomes essential and indispensable. Managing and maintaining relations amongst your employees is quintessential to the smooth functioning of your business.

Stewart Butterfield, a Canadian entrepreneur, said, “Teamwork is often ignored and not valued.”

Here is what you can do as a leader:

Be Involved: As an entrepreneur and team leader, you must be involved with every aspect of your team. Production, marketing, designing, content writing, customer service — you should fully know what’s happening in which department.

It does not mean that you try and do everything on your own. You have to decentralize and delegate tasks, but having a pulse of things is important. You may want to check in on each department weekly or a fortnightly basis and evaluate progress.

Engage with customers on social media once in a while or help in designing marketing campaigns. The optics of such involvement is endearing. When your employees see you invested in the company, it gives them faith in you as a leader and pumps up their spirits. In the long run, it keeps the organization aligned to your larger vision for your business.

Establish Accountability: Accountability, especially that flows from top to bottom, is an essential principle of team building. You have to afford the same level of accountability to yourself as you do to your employees and be answerable to your team.

Establish a system of checks and balances, not a tortuous bureaucratic systemic but more of a ‘we-meet-once-every-fortnight-and-check-in-on-the-progress’ kind of system. Keep your team updated on the progress of a project and actively seek feedback. Keep everyone in the loop and let them know that they are important and valued.

Give Credit: Don’t jump at every opportunity to grab the limelight. The hallmark of a good team leader is that they are willing to share the stage. Had a successful meeting with the investors? Call on everyone who worked on the preparation for the meeting. Acknowledge their work to other employees. It will act as an incentive to motivate others to work well.

#7 Focus on the Long Run

This tip is directly from Jeff Bezos’s playbook from entrepreneurial success. If you want to be around for the long haul, you will have to be a visionary.

Here is the Amazon Story:

In 1997, when Amazon was a relatively small company and served 1.5 million customers, Jeff Bezos, in the shareholder letter, wrote, “We believe that a fundamental measure of our success will be the shareholder value we create over the long term. This value will be a direct result of our ability to extend and solidify our current market leadership position.”

This was his vision in 1997, and he acted on his vision of ‘solidifying a market leadership position’ and launched Prime in the year 2005. Initially, it cost $79 a year and offered free two-day shipping.

Bezos later wrote that “We want Prime to be such a good value that you’d be irresponsible not to be a member.”

Acquiring those customers for a relatively modest price was not easy. The company was running the risk of incurring losses, but Bezos didn’t care. He was willing to take that risk to build a consumer base he could cash on later. All this because he had his focus on the bigger picture.

So, what do we gather from this story? If you want to be a lambi race ka ghoda, you have to have a vision and focus your actions centered around that. You can see the obstacles to your vision early on and will be extremely efficient in working around them, which is a real plus for an entrepreneur.

Congratulations! Armed with these 7 tips, you are a step closer to building a great business for yourself!

But, as you know, we always deliver more. So, here’s a bonus tip for you!

#Bonus Tip: Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

Not just in your personal life, improving your emotional intelligence helps you massively in the business sphere as well. An emotionally intelligent person understands and manages their own emotions and those of other people and can channel those emotions into productivity.

While there is no checklist of the traits that make one emotionally intelligent, there are certain attributes of a person with a high Emotional Quotient (EQ):

➔ They are aware of what people around them face in their lives and what they are currently going through.

➔ They are not spiteful of hold grudges.

➔ They are accepting of the change.

➔ They don’t project their insecurities onto others.

We are coming to how Emotional Intelligence impacts entrepreneurs.

Data-driven research has shown that Higher EQ than IQ is an indicator of strong performance. With high EQ comes a better understanding of the needs of other people. You see people as humans with feelings, needs, and thought processes instead of just perceiving them as another cog in the wheel of your enterprise.

Your heightened sensitivity to the feelings of those around you humanizes you, and you begin to grasp better the needs and demands of your co-workers, clients, investors, etc.

EQ manifests itself, not only externally but internally as well. You become aware of your triggers, flaws, and emotions. So, if you have to deal with a workplace hang-up or deal with a difficult client, you are better placed to control your emotions and not projecting them on others, which makes the whole exercise less chaotic and more productive.

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