The Entrepreneurial Mindset
MOHD NAZRI ZAKARIA, PHD
Lecture Outline
What is mindset?
What is entrepreneurial mindset?
Mindset and behavior
The importance of entrepreneurial mindset
Characteristics of having the right entrepreneurial
mindset
Building of an entrepreneurial society
Effective/Ineffective entrepreneurial mindset
Situations
Will I Success or Fail ? Will I look Smart or Dumb ?
Will I feel like a Winner or a
Will I Accepted or Rejected ?
Loser?
What is mindset?
Mind + Set
mind
The ability to think and imagine
set
Group of things
What is mindset?
A mindset refers to a set of assumptions,
methods or notations held by one or more people
or groups of people which is so established that it
creates a powerful incentive within these people or
groups to continue to adopt or accept prior
behaviors, choices, or tools.
This phenomenon of cognitive bias is also
sometimes described as mental inertia,
"groupthink", or a "paradigm", and it is often
difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis
and decision making processes.
A mental attitude that determines how you will
interpret and respond to situations.
What is mindset?
According to Dr. Carol Dweck* from Stanford
University, US, there are two sets of mindset:
A fixed mindset
A growth mindset
*Source: Carol C. Dweck (2006), Mindset: The New Psychology of
Success, Random House
© 2015 Dr.Rafi
What is mindset?
In a fixed mindset, people believe that their basic
qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply
fixed traits (rigid). They spend their time
documenting their intelligence or talent instead of
developing them. They also believe that talent alone
creates success—without effort.
What is mindset?
In a growth mindset, people believe that their
most basic abilities can be developed through
dedication and hard work—brains and talent are
just the starting point. This view creates a love of
learning and a resilience that is essential for great
accomplishment. Virtually all great people
(including entrepreneurs) have had these qualities.
View of Two Mindset
( One day, you go to a class that is really important to
you and that you like a lot. The professor returns the
midterm papers to the class. You got a C-. You’re very
disappointed. That evening on the way back to your
home, you find that you’ve gotten a parking ticket.
Beings really frustrated, you call your Best friend to
share your experience but are sort of brushed off
(when you speak to them, they refuse to talk to you or
be nice to you)
Fixed Mindset
They will say :-
I’d feel like a reject
I’m totally failure
I’m idiot
I’m loser
I feel worthless and dumb – everyone better than me
Growth Mindset
They think:-
I need to try harder in class, be more careful when parking the
car and wonder if my friend had a bad day
The C- would tell me that I’d have to work a lot harder in the
class but I have the rest of the semester to pull up my grade
© 2015 Dr.Rafi
© 2015 Dr.Rafi
Characteristics of Entrepreneurial Mind
Risk-takers – willing to take calculates risk in return
for bigger rewards
Self-starter – being able to work independently and
without given direction
Visionaries – able to see what ben end and willing to
make path to get there
Opportunity seekers – open to new opportunities
and ready to take that
Faces of successful entrepreneurs
Successful entrepreneurs
Bill Gates - Microsoft
Richard Branson – Virgin Airline
Anita Roddick – Body Shop
Konosuke Matsushita - Panasonic
Steve Job – Apple
Soichiro honda - Honda
Akio morita - Sony
others?.
Successful Entrepreneurs (Malaysia)
Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhari - Tradewinds
Lim Goh Tong – Genting Groups
Tony Fernandez – Air Asia
Ananda Krisnan – Maxis
Jimmy Choo
Others?
Faces of successful entrepreneurs - local
TONY FERNANDES – AIR ASIA
ANDIANA NABILA
Social Entrepreneurs
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Founder of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh
Test Your Mindset
You are given a set of twenty statements.
Please respond freely to those statements.
There is no right or wrong answer.
Test Implications
0 10 20
Growth Fixed
Mindset Mindset
Can mindset be changed?
Although people may differ in every which way—in
their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or
temperaments BUT everyone can change and
grow through application and experience.
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to
it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is
the HALLMARK of the growth mindset. This is
the mindset that allows people to thrive during
some of the most challenging times in their lives.
What is Entrepreneurial Mindset?
Is a set of cognitive (thinking) processes that
triggers the individuals to act or to behave
entrepreneurially.
Sometimes it is called entrepreneurial talent or mentality
This mindset, talent or mentality can be changed and modified
over time
The basis for the individual behavior
Entrepreneurial mindset refers to a specific state of
mind which orientates human conduct towards
entrepreneurial activities and outcomes. Individuals
with entrepreneurial mindsets are often drawn to
opportunities, innovation and new value creation.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
Having the right attitude:
Able to work without supervision
Able to self-motivate
Able to make quick decisions
Able to handle stress
Open-minded and flexible
Focused
Persistent
Patient, etc.
Five characteristics of the entrepreneurial mindset
McGrath and MacMillan call as habitual
entrepreneurs:
They passionately seek new opportunities.
They pursue opportunities with enormous discipline.
They pursue only the very best opportunities and avoid
exhausting themselves and their organizations by chasing after
every option.
They focus on execution—specifically, adaptive execution.
Mindset and Behavior
• Functional • Intrinsic
•Intention
knowledge
•Spirit
• Entrepreneurial Knowledge
Motivation •Responsibility
skills &
• Managerial Skills • Extrinsic:
•RoleModel
skills
•Rewards
• Technical skills
• Communication • Pro-active
skills Attitude • Positive values
• IT skills • Propensity to take risk
• Creative and innovative
• Inquisitive mind
• Pursuing excellence
Mindset affects the individual
behavior at all levels
Mindset and Behavior
BEHAVIOR MINDSET
(Explicit) (Tacit)
APTITUDE
(Implicit)
The Importance of Entrepreneurial Mindset
To cope with the rapidly changing economy.
Business/economic environment today has become fuzzy,
chaotic, complex, uncertain and change very rapidly.
To succeed in the midst of this chaos and uncertainty we
require the agility, creativity, flexibility, innovation,
interdependence and vision of entrepreneurs and their
enterprising units.
CREATIVITY 1
CREATIVITY 2
INNOVATION – BYD
INNOVATION - REVA
The Importance of Entrepreneurial Mindset
To build an entrepreneurial society
Developing the right mindset at a very early age
Inculcation and acculturization process need to
implemented thru various programs and activities
Entrepreneurs as agents of change at every level of the
society
Important contribution to entrepreneurial capital
Entrepreneurship as a way of life
Building an Entrepreneurial Society
ECONOMIC ENTREPRENEURIAL
GROWTH ECONOMY
-Higher output
-Vibrant
-Higher income per capita
ENTREPRENEURIAL -Sustainable
-Higher standard of living
CAPITAL -Added value
-Full employment
-Job creation
-Human -Higher
ENTREPRENEURIAL
-Knowledge productivity
SOCIETY
-Intellectual
-Risk-taker -Physical
ACCULTURIZATION
-Innovative -Financial
PROCESS
-Creative -Social
-Changing the mindset -Supportive
-Building the culture
The Importance of Entrepreneurial Mindset
To spur innovation and growth
From creative people, comes creative products
Innovation creates and adds value
Finding new source of economic growth
Change as process, not destiny
Thinking “out of the box” becomes norms of the society
Innovation in every part of the value chain
Ineffective Entrepreneurial
Mindset
Don’t care attitude (Sikap “tak apa, sambil
lewa & malas”)
Not being meticulous/ takes thing for
granted) (Budaya “cincai & ambil mudah”
Passing the buck (Sikap “ini bukan kerja say
a”)
Why should I care?/Lackadaisical attitude
(Budaya “saya tak tahu & tidak peduli”)
Ineffective Entrepreneurial
Mindset
Wait and see (Sikap “tunggu dan lihat”)
Non-punctuality (Budaya tidak menepati
masa dan janji)
Subsidy mentality (Mentaliti subsidi)
Boria syndrome (Sindrom boria)
Ask more, give less (Budaya meminta-minta)
Shift in the Minds of Entrepreneur Mindset
Today’s entrepreneurs can not be boxed in;
Work whenever they want – entrepreneur yearn
for flexibility – want work life balance on their
own way
Work on what interests them – they love their
work but they want to work on what they choose
Ability to travel while working – flexibility to
travel – don’t want to be limited to an office
Developing an Effective Entrepreneurial
Mindset
Understand what motivates you
Know what you love
Challenge yourself
Reversal thinking
Change your habit (once in a while)
Always believe that you can
Break away from norms
Summary
We (entrepreneurs) must see things from different
perspectives, willing to try new ways of doing things,
willing to tolerate a higher level ambiguity, do not
fear failure, seek and embrace new norms, and most
importantly to realign our mental attitude – the
mindset
.
Remember to…
Focus on effort, struggle, persistence despite
setbacks
Choose difficult tasks
Focus on Strategies
Reflect on different strategies that work and don’t
work
Focus on Learning and improving
Seek challenges
Work hard
Conclusion
Four (4) categories of people:
– Makes things happen
– See things happen
– Wonder what happen
– Do not know what happen
Which category would you like to be in?
