There’s a huge difference between the mindset and mentality of an employee and an entrepreneur.
Employees tend to value stability, protection and certainty in the form of receiving a regular paycheck, and whilst this keeps them on a financial treadmill where they are often living hand to mouth, it is at least reliable and guaranteed.
Entrepreneur’s on the other hand tend to value growth, challenge and adventure – they seem to dream big and love to embrace the possibility of making themselves incredibly successful, that said, the reality is that they often work extremely long hours for little reward, at least in the beginning.
The good news, however, is that they are creating an asset that will serve them over time, as unlike an employee that trades their time for money in a very linear way that means when they stop working they stop earning, an entrepreneur is building a system that can be leveraged to produce income even if they are not personally putting the hours in.
The best way to consider the difference here, is to think of an ice cream van operator, often self-employed though sometimes employed – this person is trading their time for money, as if they don’t turn up and sell ice creams that day, they simply don’t get paid. Then, we have the entrepreneurial business owner who employs ten ice cream van operators – the business owner has leverage because he is making profit on each van, and if he wanted to, he could increase his ice cream van empire to hundred vans to make even more money.
- INSTANT REWARD vs. DELAYED GRATIFICATION
The main difference is that employees focus on getting a good salary (immediate term) whereas entrepreneurs focus on making a substantial and sustainable profit (long term).
Entrepreneurs tend to understand the principle of delayed gratification, as we all want to live an 8 figure dream lifestyle, yet for employees, it’s never within their grasp. However, when you become an entrepreneur the world is genuinely your oyster as you determine how big you build your business and how successful you become in the process.
- ENTREPRENEURS IMPROVE THEIR SKILLS WHEREAS EMPLOYEES IMPROVE THEIR WEAKNESSES
Employees are taught that they should focus on improving their weaknesses yet entrepreneurs consider this approach to be futilte, as rather than focus on improving their weaknesses they increase their areas of natural strength and ability.
Take Michael Jordan for example, he is naturally gifted at basketball, the entrepreneur mentality suggests he should focus on this and invest everything he has into honing his craft; whereas the employee mentality would suggest he needs to focus on improving his weakness in the area of swimming in order to be a good all rounder.
- ENTREPRENEURS DELEGATE WHEREAS EMPLOYEES DIY
Entrepreneurs appreciate the monetary value of their time and focus their attention on high income generating work that only they can do, as an example, work at a strategic level – and outsource most other things. Employees, on the other hand tend to feel the need to do everything themselves and juggle multiple tasks; often leading to exhaustion and underperformance in critical tasks.