The mindset of an entrepreneur: Your employer is your most important customer
This is an excerpt from my book “The Corporate Sales Winners Guide”. From the beginning, things like “working” and “going to the office,” are associated with something negative. The traditional and dominant view is that you can’t get out of it. You have to work all your life!
It is “destiny” and destined: the happy, carefree school or college days are really over now. You no longer have any choice but to go into paid employment to earn money. To earn money … to provide for the basic necessities of life and to live a pleasant life after work and on weekends. To be able to go on vacation a few times a year. In the end, we work in order to live.
Why most people hate their jobs and hate going to the office
But did you know that more and more studies show, that most people completely dislike going back to work every morning.
- They hate their jobs and are annoyed with their colleagues.
- They are annoyed to have to travel on overcrowded trains or get stuck in traffic jams.
- They feel unappreciated.
- They find what they do totally uninteresting and get no satisfaction.
- They feel trapped in their jobs with no way to escape.
- They feel they do not earn enough to finance their lifestyle.
The only solution seems to be to save a lot of money, perhaps to retire a few years earlier. But it remains to be seen whether that will come to pass. The hard-earned and saved money and retirement investments, are becoming worth less and less every day. Other people dream about the very slim chance of winning the lottery. In order to get rid of the above annoyances all at once. Becoming an “over-night” millionaire seems to be the most ideal solution to all problems. But is that really the case?
Just a steady job without a plan, passion, ambition or vision is like a dead end
Funnily enough, most people have absolutely no plan, passion, ambition or vision of what to do with all that money. As a result, they spend all the money on luxury goods. Only to have to start working poor again. Or to go through life rich but very bored. But if the lottery, savings or retirement investments are all not the solution, what can you do to break this negative, hopeless spiral?
Fortunately, we don’t have to look far for the solution! It all starts with changing your primary thoughts and attitudes toward work. It starts with changing your mindset: A collection of personal beliefs, values and ideas, which you have inherited from childhood. Your mindset determines reality as you see it through your eyes. Your mindset is also greatly influenced by your personal environment. Think for example of your partner, friends and parents.
The big problem is the masses’ perception of work. That perception is messed up for them by their own mindset. According to their mindset, work is necessary and only in exchange for financial compensation, namely salary. People trade their frugal time for a job, which they don’t really find interesting at all. Purely and simply to earn the best possible salary and hopefully if things are a bit lucky: flexible working hours and not too complicated tasks and responsibilities.
And this is precisely where things go wrong…
These people gave up their own passions and dreams long ago. They are totally out of touch with what really interests them. They have lost or forgotten their dreams and passions. They no longer know how they could use their own unique passion to enjoy going to work and still make money.
Your employer is a temporary station on your path to financial freedom and independence
The solution is to change your mindset. You need to start seeing an employer as an intermediate and special opportunity from now on.
A great opportunity to gain unique skills and knowledge. Knowledge, experience and skills in a particular specialization and niche, which are very valuable to certain companies and clients.
Consider, for example:
- Unique software programming knowledge.
- Specialist knowledge about transportation and storage of chemicals and fuels.
- Technical and commercial knowledge in the field of specific IT services.
- Knowledge and skills that are scarce in the marketplace.
Those unique skills can help you increase your market value exponentially. Especially if you combine them with knowledge about competitors, customers and the industry. All this is highly sought-after information for companies that want to be able to grow and capture market share.
So you have to look for a business that is an extension of your own interests, passion and personality. Of course, if something doesn’t excite and interest you at all, you’re never going to be able to put any effort into this every day.
You therefore need to find out for yourself what your real interests and passions are!
In addition, we need to get rid of the word employer and ideally start replacing it with a more appropriate word, such as learning provider. A place where we can learn, grow and develop. In a specific niche that is valuable and highly relevant to a particular group.
The experience you get is going to help you later on to earn exponentially more. Which is going to help you start working for yourself more easily, starting your own business, for example. Which is going to help you realize your personal financial freedom.
Of course, you don’t change your mindset in one night of sleep and then suddenly everything is different in the morning. But it can still happen faster than you think!
10 tips to become more successful at work faster by thinking like an entrepreneur
It is important to start changing your beliefs, behavior and attitude toward some things step by step. Then it will actually happen naturally and before you know it, you will no longer see your work as a traditional 9-to-5 job.
Here are ten tips that will get you started and are easy to apply in practice.
- From now on, treat and see your employer as your greatest and most important client! You are self-employed and your client allows you to earn a lot of money and learn at the same time! Thanks to the skills and knowledge you gain, you can help your future clients become successful. Your client helps you to further specialize in a niche. A specialization that is going to help you make exponentially more money.
- Make sure you have clear goals about what you want to do with your life and career. For example, do you want to become financially free, or do you want to start your own business? Do you want to be able to work anywhere and not be tied to an office and 9-to-5 job? Then make sure, that all your choices are constantly focused on achieving that goal. Including your choice of employer and education. If you have a clear goal in mind and a tight plan, you will start your work each day with joy. With every step you take, you’ll smile as you get closer and closer to your goal!
- Then eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to achieving your goals!]. If you are stuck and can no longer grow in your job, then it really is time for change! The biggest risk you face is not changing, but standing still and slipping further away from your goals!
- Respect and value your job and employer. Realize, that you actually get paid three(!) salaries as a sales professional! A base salary on which you can make a good living. A high variable salary for your direct sales performance, allowing you to earn much more, and as an added reward all the unique skills and specialized knowledge you gain! This also includes the huge business network you build with all kinds of customers and suppliers.
- From now on, think as an entrepreneur and no longer as an employee. Employees think “small” about how to sell and earn more. Entrepreneurs think “big” about how to maximize customer satisfaction, gain new customers and continue to grow the business.
By thinking bigger as an entrepreneur, you will automatically step out of the negative stereotype many people have about sales and salespeople. Selling then comes naturally and you will be able to win customers with ease. All thanks to your persuasiveness, sincerity, enthusiasm and new mindset.
- Start each day as if you were an entrepreneur with no steady income. Force yourself to think, about how you could sell more.
- Every day ask yourself the question, “How do I make more money today?” You will see, that after a while you will discover all kinds of opportunities that were invisible before. At some point you will ask yourself, why didn’t you see all these opportunities before? Then you will realize that the money and opportunities were always there. You unfortunately, because of your old limited mindset, didn’t get to see them before.
- Never take criticism from your boss too seriously. First, try to see if there is something of value in it. Something useful and constructive that can make you even more successful in the future. If the criticism is not constructive, then out with it and into the trash!
Remember the following: never let others change your own unique personality and style! After all, this is the only thing that allows you to stand out from the crowd.
If managers are asking you to change your personality or ego, it’s best not to listen to them. If these are people who have been very successful for some time, people who have achieved something similar to your personal goal, then it is definitely worth listening to them anyway.
Don’t take advice from managers who are not really successful yet. They are probably just very jealous because they see that you are growing and they can no longer have any real influence over you.
- Try to exceed expectations every time (including those of your employer, supplier and customer). Go that little bit further than the rest each time! Answer just that little bit faster. Do that little bit extra, which actually costs you little extra effort, but which is something great for the customer and is greatly appreciated. By doing so, you strengthen your own personal brand. You thus distance yourself from the mass of competing salespeople. Then when you decide to change jobs, you just immediately take all the satisfied customers with you!
- Stop hanging out with so-called friends. These are those acquaintances who are jealous and critical of your new mindset. Your immediate environment and the people you hang out with have a very big influence on you as a person and therefore also on your mindset! Rather, associate with people who want to become or are already successful just like you.
Don’t know where to meet them? Then look into networking drinks with entrepreneurs. Go to a seminar, where you can learn something new. Here you will also meet your new friends who have the same mindset as you.
Book Source
The corporate sales winners guide: Transform your life and become a top sales performer – by Gerrit Jan de Vries. Available on Amazon, Google Play Books and Bol.com.