I Think I Can, I Know I Can: Learning to Think Like an Entrepreneur to Help Drive Success

One of the common questions Craig Elias hears is, ‘Can entrepreneurship be taught?’

“But that’s the wrong question,” says Elias, a business expert, mentor, author and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Bow Valley College. “Instead we should be asking, can it be learned? And if so, how?

Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset means adopting habits that can create the conditions for new ideas, opportunities and success. One of the most beneficial habits is also one of the most simple: having conversations. 

“One of the things that entrepreneurs do is we don't use a whole lot of email,” says Elias, who has a three text message rule before the conversation becomes a call. “We talk to people, because it's in the conversations that new ideas come up.

With that comes the ability to socialize—a key skill. First, says Elias, is the ability to socialize our ideas. To be successful, we need to talk to people about our ideas, our projects or our problems. Tell people what you’re working on and take their feedback. Second is good old-fashioned networking. You need to socialize with people, says Elias, including — or perhaps, especially—people you don’t know, and learn from their perspectives, insights and experience. “That socializing turns into awesome connections that you can draw on, and the data suggests that the size of your network is the biggest single predictor of success,” he says. 

Students can develop that entrepreneurial mindset by adopting new or different ways of thinking and approaching work, projects, problems and ideas, says Elias. Along the way they’ll learn new skills that will help enable their success.

One way to learn more effectively is transactional velocity, which is the ability to “get stuff done faster and faster,” says Elias. 

That means not always waiting to learn something before putting it to the test. Entrepreneurs often learn more effectively because they make mistakes more quickly, by adopting an “act, learn, act” mentality, rather than a “learn, act, learn” mentality, Elias says. “Entrepreneurs are going to do something to learn something so they can then do it differently.” 

This enables faster experimentation and ultimately faster learning, because you enter a cycle that allows you to learn from your mistakes faster and faster, which leads you to a more successful outcome more quickly. “If you can shorten the time it takes you to figure out all the things that won't work, you get to what does work way sooner. It’s like compound interest on an investment,” says Elias. 

Part of the necessary shift in thinking is learning to fall in love with a problem, says Elias. Too often, people fall in love with a solution, and with the idea of being right. But for an entrepreneur, tackling a problem, and asking different questions from different perspectives, is what helps drive innovation. 

“The question becomes, how do you focus on the problem you want to solve? Because maybe your first solution doesn't work,” says Elias. “And if you're tied to your solution, you're not willing to change.”

And sometimes within this mindset shift, we need to learn to let go of the traditional or the status quo, Elias points out. By adopting the courage to sacrifice, we adopt the capacity to learn or achieve new things. “It’s not just about thinking outside the box, but reshaping the box entirely,” says Elias. 

In his role as entrepreneur-in-residence, Elias draws on the teachings of psychologist Albert Bandura, whose approach of ‘Guided Mastery,’ helps students see that they can, in fact, accomplish something that might seem impossible or out of reach. It’s through this process that students’ outlooks progress from “I won’t” or “I can’t” to “I’ll try,” “I will,” or  “I can.” Experiencing that evolution is part of the journey to developing the mindsets necessary for achieving success. 

“It's really all about helping them see themselves as someone who can do this.”

As our professional lives and the labour market continue to evolve, developing an entrepreneurial outlook now—believing in your ability, embracing problems and learning from failures—will help ensure you can continue to adapt to those changes successfully. 

Question: Do you have the critical skills that will help you embrace problems and reshape the box? How can you build a network of contacts to socialize your ideas and increase your chances of success? Socializing your ideas and having conversations are some of the approaches entrepreneurs adopt—what are some other tactics that entrepreneurs use in their quest for success?

About Wavemakers

The Wavemakers program is a first-of-its-kind work-integrated learning program that leverages cutting-edge, accessible virtual reality technology and forward-thinking speakers. Wavemakers provides post-secondary students from diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives with the opportunity to come together, develop and cultivate future-proof skills, and build long-lasting connections with industry leaders, to help their transition into the workplace. It’s about providing meaningful opportunities to a diverse community of future leaders who can tackle today’s big challenges with even bigger and bolder ideas that will carry us into a more positive and inclusive tomorrow.