Are You A Defensive Entrepreneur?

Grace Christos

3 years ago

It is always advised to build a company that resonates with your passion and needs as a human being. This is great, but it comes with a lot of excesses.

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A lot of people talk about the tips and hacks in building a business, securing partnerships, scaling, acquiring talents, building systems, creating a strategy, and even outsourcing tasks, but they seem to forget about the core values of the founder itself. Building a business is genuinely not the easiest, and you encounter challenges more often than not. Building the right attitude towards the company can also co-exist as a solid factor. Entrepreneurship is crazy, and business owners tend to treat their business as their baby, but there is so much that can happen in favour of the business if only you can be open-minded to more possibilities. If, as a business owner, you exhibit one or more of these traits, you are probably defensive, and it is time to outgrow it.

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You don’t listen to feedback: Your product can be the best out there and still have so many flaws. It is very typical to be biased because you made this product. Having another party give you their constructive opinion about your product will give you insights into what to improve and how to do so.
You take every failure personally: Either it was pitching to an investor, pitching for a brand partnership, bidding for a contract, and you had failed attempts. It is not the end of your business. Everybody fails sometimes; the good thing is you learn and pick yourself up again.
You micromanage your employees: If you find yourself doing almost everything on your own despite your workers or your staff keeps leaving, you should re-examine why they were employed in the first place. You hire people to make your life easier, not complicate things for you. Delegate tasks to your employees and give them the grace to learn where necessary. Their approach to work might be different; their orientation might not be the same as yours – don’t force your way down their throats.
You see your competition as the enemy: Doing a business without having competition is impossible. No matter what, no matter where there is somebody else doing what you do. Do not see them as an opposition; rather, see them as validation that you are doing something right.

As an entrepreneur, understand where the line needs to be drawn and do accordingly. Always treat your business as an independent part of you but do not overdo it. Sometimes, the fault is not coming from your strategy or your employees or customers, it is probably from you, the founder. The big companies did not grow by closing their minds to growth and change. They took feedback and pushed despite all odds to keep reinventing and innovating. Any business can be a big business; you just need to be open-minded. Growth is not pretty at all but it is always a great call. Featured Image Source: Business 2 Community

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