Entrepreneurship and mental resilience

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MENTAL RESILIENCE Poornima Shenoy talks about the importance of mental resilience for an entrepreneur, and how it is one of the key requirements for long-term success.

“If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you – like a fever.” – Sam Walton

When one speaks of entrepreneurship, you are most often speaking of a person who has the ability and the passion to focus on his or her dreams. Someone who will surmount problems and will strive to meet and surpass goals.

Very often an entrepreneur is one who has had a great track record in college and in his career, and aims to translate that success as an entrepreneur. But the issues here could be vastly different – ‘will the idea sell or is it ahead of its time?’, ‘is the competition too deeply entrenched?’, ‘are potential customers averse to trying out new products?’, ‘will you be able to get the money to run your business and will you be able to excite people to work with you?’

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The mix needs to have all the ingredients right for the cake to be baked, but how do you deal with missing ingredients?

Every day, thousands of people decide to start their own business. The idea of being an entrepreneur is very appealing. It is most important that one should ask oneself – ‘do I have the mental resilience to survive all the setbacks that being an entrepreneur brings along the way?’

“It is most important that one should ask oneself – ‘do I have the mental resilience to survive all the setbacks that being an entrepreneur brings along the way?”

For some people, mental resilience is in their DNA; some have good mentors; but for most people, it is not easy. Unfortunately, quitting feels a lot easier than to fight for what you believe in or what you want.

Every time you experience a setback, figure out a way to turn it into a learning experience instead of a defeat because that is all it is, a learning experience.

I personally feel that sports and physical fitness can play an important role. In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. If anyone in business ever needed mental toughness, it’s an entrepreneur.

“In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. If anyone in business ever needed mental resilience, it’s an entrepreneur.”

Startup success is all about execution, all while facing determined competitors and overcoming customers’ resistance to change. By maintaining mental stability and physical fitness, and preparing yourself intellectually, you will function more effectively and your success will grow.

We all need mental resilience to succeed and lead in today’s business environment. It takes more than market knowledge and technical skill alone. That’s the fun part of the challenge to most entrepreneurs. If it was easy, anyone could do it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Poornima S Founder & CEO,Latitude Edutech Entrepreneur. Over two decades of industry experience in building business and organizations Focused on building a delivery focused team and organization addressing new verticals via eLearning in India. Government of India nominee to the First Court of the Tripura Central University. Independent Director on the Board of BSE listed company Moschip Technologies.

Mentor at Founder Institute, Edugild and National Entrepreneurship Network NEN.

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