3 Signs That Your Brain is Telling You to Start a Business
Most people who start a business begin with an idea. They see something that could be done better, muster the courage to have a go, and finally take those first bold steps into the unknown. However, as any early-stage entrepreneur will tell you, having a good idea is the least of your worries! More crucial to your initial success is how mentally prepared you are for the challenges you will face in getting your business off the ground.
In the Ideation stage, before you even have an idea for a business, there are some positive signs that you can look for that you are ready for the challenge. Being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and you need to be prepared to love the journey before you even worry about whether your idea is good enough. So to help you assess whether you are ready to make the leap into entrepreneurship, we have identified three thinking patterns that suggest you might do well as a founder, and some things to look out for with each.
1. Feeling a desire for change
Many entrepreneurs start with a sense of restlessness within their current work or life. It’s just a feeling they can’t put their finger on that something needs to change.
If you spend the majority of your time working, then this could be your brain telling you that professionally you need a fresh challenge.
Perhaps you have been in the same job, surrounded by the same people for a while and starting to feel stale.
Or perhaps you are uncertain about the work path you are on and can’t see where it’s going.
Some people just like a new challenge every couple of years to refresh their experiences.
The most successful entrepreneurs start businesses not from a desire for a change of scenery, but from a desire to change the world around them. They have a burning need to make things better for a particular set of people, and are willing to embrace change themselves to make it happen.
Feeling a strong desire for change will help you stay motivated when things get tough. Being an entrepreneur gives you huge potential to change both yourself and the world around you, but change often comes with pain, uncertainty and failure as well as glory and reward. So make sure you have a clear hunger for transformation before you start on your entrepreneurial journey, and are willing to sacrifice who you are today to become who you might be tomorrow.
Here are some questions we have found useful to ask entrepreneurs in the ideation stage about their desire for change:
What are you dissatisfied with currently that you would take a risk for? Make sure that your restlessness stems from the right source and not something else in your life.
Are you more driven by change for yourself or the world around you? If the change is centred on you then it will be harder to sustain when the journey is tough, as there are easier routes to personal growth.
How prepared are you to take the discomfort that comes with change? What are you willing to sacrifice? Make sure you consciously commit to this.
2. Feeling you have unfulfilled potential
You will never learn as many things as quickly as when you start a business. Suddenly everything is your responsibility and you realise how little you knew! It’s a great opportunity to stretch yourself in new ways.
For many people, their entrepreneurial journey starts with a feeling of unfulfilled potential. You may be successful in your career and have reached a plateau, with the next step up requiring you to work in an area that is of no interest you. Or perhaps you are in a role that doesn’t stretch or challenge you, and think you have a lot more to give (if only you had an outlet).
Some people have amazing skills and talents that they only get to use outside of work, and want to use them more.
If these situations sound like you, then your brain could be ready for the challenge of entrepreneurship.
But be prepared for imposter syndrome – the feeling that maybe you aren’t as smart as you thought you were, and possibly even “not good enough” to be an entrepreneur. This strikes when you least expect it.
You may think that as soon as you start your business, your unfulfilled potential will be revealed in all its glory! But entrepreneurship is not like that. It takes work and effort to uncover that potential, and only through relentless challenge, failure and feedback will your inner entrepreneur begin to shine.
Many entrepreneurs have several business failures behind them before they achieve success. Be prepared to earn your potential through effort!
The three most useful questions we have found to check if you are ready to fulfil your potential as an entrepreneur are:
Do you feel you have unused talents, or unused capacity for learning? Be careful of the former – relying on your talent to get by is a sure way to get stuck as an entrepreneur.
When was the last time you went out of your way to test your potential? Entrepreneurship requires daily action outside your comfort zone, so if you are not actively stretching yourself now then you may find it a shock when you start.
How would starting a business stretch you? Make sure you have thought about this honestly, and that a stretch in this area is truly what you’re looking for to fulfill your potential.
3. A desire for self-determination
Are you tired of performance reviews that go nowhere? Tired of following corporate policies that don’t make any sense? Can’t stand how long it takes to make decisions at work, or how the product that you sell just isn’t quite right but no-one is doing anything about it?
Many people feel disillusioned with the lack of power and autonomy they have in day-to-day life, and this is one of the big draws of becoming an entrepreneur: No-one to tell you what to do, no-one throwing a rulebook at you. Complete freedom to pursue your goals in any way you choose.
However, people underestimate the mental load that comes with self-determination. What feels like freedom is also a big responsibility. With no guidance on what to do, how will you make decisions about where to spend your time? You can’t possibly focus on everything, so how will you balance growing the business with day-to-day tasks?
The other area of self-determination that early-stage entrepreneurs struggle with is failure. On one hand it is good to be able to try new things and make those decisions yourself, but when something goes wrong there is no-one else to blame, and this can lead founders to be hard on themselves.
If you have a desire for self-determination, then ask yourself these three important questions to assess whether it could lead you down the startup path:
Are you decisive in other areas of your life, or do you procrastinate a lot? If the latter, then you could try to experiment with making decisions more quickly and intuitively in other areas before embarking on a business venture.
Are you willing to accept responsibility for the outcome of your actions, even when they don’t go well? Ask yourself how you dealt with it the last time you failed.
What are you willing to risk for the psychological freedom that entrepreneurship provides? Think about how you will maintain your self-worth if failure comes your way.
The mental resolve that entrepreneurs need to drive their businesses to success is very often underestimated. It is the key thing that will allow you to survive and evolve through the stages of your business’s birth and development. By looking out for these key signs, you can ensure you have the right mindset to start exploring an idea, so that you don’t fall into the trap of starting with an idea and getting stuck in a mental rut.