Understanding The Entrepreneurial Mind

Interest in the functioning of the human mind can certainly be traced to Plato and Aristotle who often dealt with issues of perceptions and motivations. While the Greeks may have contemplated the human condition, the modern study of the human mind can be traced back to Sigmund Freud (1900) and the psychoanalytic movement. He began the exploration of both conscious and unconscious factors that propelled humans to engage in a variety of behaviors. While Freud’s focus may have been on repressed sexuality our focus in this volume lies elsewhere. We are concerned herein with the expression of the cognitions, motivations, passions, intentions, perceptions, and emotions associated with entrepreneurial behaviors. We are attempting in this volume to expand on the work of why entrepreneurs think d- ferently from other people (Baron, 1998, 2004). During the decade of the 1990s the eld of entrepreneurship research seemingly abandoned the study of the entrepreneur. This was the result of earlier research not being able to demonstrate some unique entrepreneurial personality, trait, or char- teristic (Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986). It was both a naïve and simplistic search for the “holy grail” of what made entrepreneurs the way they are. However, many of the researchers in this volume have never gave up the belief that a better und- standing of the mind of the entrepreneur would give us a better understanding of the processes that lead to the creation of new ventures.

100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs What Every Successful Entrepreneur Knows But Won’t Tell You Achieve unimaginable business success and financial wealth. Reach the upper echelons of entrepreneurs, where you’ll find Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sara Blakely of Spanx, Mark Pincus of Zynga and many others. Develop the Entrepreneur Mind – a way of thinking that comes from learning the vital lessons of the best entrepreneurs. Through compelling stories of modern-day business tycoons, Kevin Johnson, president of the multi-million dollar company Johnson Media Inc., shares the essential beliefs, characteristics and habits of elite entrepreneurs. In this riveting book, written for new and veteran entrepreneurs, Johnson identifies 100 lessons in seven key areas: Strategy, Education, People, Finance, Marketing and Sales, Leadership, and Motivation. Lessons include how to think big, who makes the best business partners, what captivates investors, when to abandon a business idea, where to avoid opening a business bank account, and why too much formal education can hinder your entrepreneurial growth. Smart and insightful, The Entrepreneur Mind is the ultimate primer on how to think like an entrepreneur. KEVIN D. JOHNSON, president of Johnson Media Inc. and a serial entrepreneur, has several years of experience leading his multimillion-dollar marketing and communications company that now serves many of the most notable Fortune 100 businesses.

The book explores various aspects of cognitive and motivational psychology as they impact entrepreneurial behavior. Building upon the 2009 volume, Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind, the editors and contributors explore the cognitions, motivations, passions, intentions, perceptions, and emotions associated with entrepreneurial behaviors, in each case preserving their original chapters and enhancing them with thoughtful and targeted updates, reflecting on the most recent developments in theory and practice, telling the story of what has transpired in the last decade in the field of entrepreneurial psychology. The volume addresses such questions as: Why do some people start business and others do not? Is entrepreneurship a natural quality or can it be taught? Do entrepreneurs think differently from others? While there is a great deal of literature exploring the dynamics of new firm creation, policies to promote innovation and technology transfer, and the psychology of creativity; research on entrepreneurial mindset or cognition is relatively new, and draws largely from such related fields as organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, career development, and consumer research. In this book, editors Brännback and Carsrud have reassembled the contributors to Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind to discuss new research paradigms given their vantage point years after the original volume was published. Featuring the most current literature references, Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Mind continues to challenge conventional approaches to entrepreneurship and articulate an agenda for future research.

This open access book investigates the inter-relationship between the mind and a potential opportunity to explore the psychology of entrepreneurship. Building on recent research, this book offers a broad scope investigation of the different aspects of what goes on in the mind of the (potential) entrepreneur as he or she considers the pursuit of a potential opportunity, the creation of a new organization, and/or the selection of an entrepreneurial career. This book focuses on individuals as the level of analysis and explores the impact of the organization and the environment only inasmuch as they impact the individual’s cognitions. Readers will learn why some individuals and managers are able to able to identify and successfully act upon opportunities in uncertain environments while others are not. This book applies a cognitive lens to understand individuals’ knowledge, motivation, attention, identity, and emotions in the entrepreneurial process.

A Blueprint for Building Entrepreneurial Organizations Nobody needs to tell you that in the new economy, managers using conventional strategies are losing out to smart, fast, entrepreneurial competitors who move on ideas others overlook and who confidently act while others dither. Are the managers of leading companies simply doomed to let this happen? Not at all, argue Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan. The fundamental problem is that the tools, training, and conceptual frameworks that work for business-as-usual can't, and don't, work when your main challenge is to bury old business models and aggressively create completely new ones. To succeed, today's strategists need the thought process and discipline that are second nature to successful entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurial Mindset offers a refreshingly practical blueprint for thinking and acting in environments that are fast-paced, rapidly changing, and highly uncertain. It provides both a guide to energizing the organization to find tomorrow's opportunities and a set of entrepreneurial principles you can use personally to transform the arenas in which you compete. Using lessons drawn from leading entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies, The Entrepreneurial Mindset presents a set of practices for capitalizing on uncertainty and rapid change. Like McGrath and MacMillan's bestselling Harvard Business Review articles, such as "Discovery-Driven Planning," the book provides simple but powerful ways to stop acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of habitual entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurial Mindset will show you how to: * Eliminate paralyzing uncertainty by creating an entrepreneurial frame that shapes a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished and what would be worthwhile * Create a richly stocked opportunity register in which you mobilize great ideas for redesigning existing products, finding new sources of differentiation, resegmenting existing markets, reconfiguring market spaces, and seizing the huge upside potential of breakthroughs * Build a dynamic portfolio of businesses and options that continuously move your organization toward the future * Execute dynamically your ideas so that you can move fast, with confidence and without undue risk * Develop your own way of leading with an entrepreneurial mindset to create a vibrant entrepreneurial climate within your organization The Entrepreneurial Mindset is about succeeding in an unpredictable world. It will help everyone from independent entrepreneurs to managers of large corporations develop insights that others overlook and act on them to build the truly entrepreneurial organizations of the future.

From Heidi Neck, one of the most influential thinkers in entrepreneurship education today, Chris Neck, an award-winning professor, and Emma Murray, business consultant and author, comes this ground-breaking new text. Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset catapults students beyond the classroom by helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create opportunities and take action in uncertain environments. Based on the world-renowned Babson Entrepreneurship program, this new text emphasizes practice and learning through action. Students learn entrepreneurship by taking small actions and interacting with stakeholders in order to get feedback, experiment, and move ideas forward. Students walk away from this text with the entrepreneurial mindset, skillset, and toolset that can be applied to startups as well as organizations of all kinds. Whether your students have backgrounds in business, liberal arts, engineering, or the sciences, this text will take them on a transformative journey.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND, Jeffry A. Timmons, Harvard Business School "A well-written & practical book designed to aid persons contemplating an entrepreneurial venture. Timmons, a specialist in entrepreneurship, has done an excellent job covering the field. Starting with a broad overview of what entrepreneurship is, he concludes with an assessment aimed at summing up the strengths & weaknesses of a new enterprise in advance. In between, he provides sound advice on necessary managerial skills; how to form, build, & reward a new venture team; planning & goal-setting; & the pros & cons of family businesses. Particular attention is also given to the need for ethical standards. Recommended." -- Library Journal. "A close look at the psychology of the entrepreneur & how that type of personality reacts with people & the world at large. Timmons does a good job of exploding myths & misconceptions, offering a wealth of insight into success, failure, & the hard work it takes to succeed in starting up a business or taking over the reins of an established or family-owned enterprise. The pitfalls of entrepreneurial life are analyzed, but more importantly, the positive attributes of the entrepreneur are emphasized. Numerous real-life case studies supplement the coverage." -- Booklist.

What kind of mindset is needed to thrive in a future being transformed by exponentially advancing technology and threats ranging from COVID-19 to climate change? Answer: The Entrepreneurial Mindset. Many proclaim that STEM education is the best preparation for the 21st century economy. But STEM is not enough. To flourish in the future of work, the 8 domains of The Entrepreneurial Mindset are essential. And the best way for young people to build this mindset is through project-based entrepreneurship education. The Entrepreneurial Mindset explores the intersection between the future of work and education. Readers will be inspired by real-life stories and in-depth research on how―and why―project-based entrepreneurship education changes the trajectories of students' lives. Young people, parents, educators, students, entrepreneurs, investors, business and public sector leaders, school board members and administrators, researchers, and everyone interested in preparing our next generation for the future of work will benefit from this book. The Entrepreneurial Mindset draws upon learning methods and case studies from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a nonprofit based in New York City that has reached over 1 million students. All proceeds from the book go directly to NFTE to support its mission.