The Entrepreneur Identity Construct
“We don’t experience life, we experience the life we focus on”
–Tony Robbins
Entrepreneurs and creators are inspired to bring their ideas to life through products, artistic expressions and businesses. At Genesis Block we are fortunate to engage with unique ideas generated from brilliant minds that have dreams of business success. Early stage founders are full of passion and ambition to start their venture however we found that limited beliefs, doubts, fears and worries were impeding their business development. In late 2021, we decided to adjust our Jump start Academy and business incubator programming to include emphasis on the entrepreneur mindset.
We began an open dialogue with founders about their challenges with self worth, doubts in their abilities and their emotional reactivity to feedback from customers. We learned that founders face the same challenge we all have when making a transformational shift. There are hundreds of books affirming the notion that shifting to a growth mindset unlocks business success. However, early stage entrepreneurs (and all humans)struggle with lingering doubts, anxiety and worries about their success in the marketplace. The entrepreneur identity construct is an area that we want to examine in order to provide founders with tools to increase the confidence, self esteem and transform their mindset.
We begin with the question.
What have you accepted as truth?
Core Beliefs
Core beliefs are the beliefs you have about yourself, other people, and the world around you. A belief system is a set of beliefs you have about what’s right and wrong and what’s true or false or the proper order of things. We organize our core beliefs into a system that forms a mental construct or world view. In other words, we our perception of the world and the things we experience are largely framed by our beliefs.
Merriam-Webster defines belief as “a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing” ; it goes on to define belief as “conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence. This firmly establishes belief as conviction of the truth and a habit based on our state of mind. Our beliefs dictate what we deem as “truth” and lay the foundation for how we perceive the world and guide our relationship to the world around us.
“We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.” — Don Miguel Ruiz
First generation entrepreneurs in particular face generations of beliefs, conditioned values and perceptions that are not in alignment with entrepreneurial success. This is one of the largest psychological hurdles that we faced when coaching founders at Genesis Block. Entrepreneurs were inspired to greatness and empowered with the big idea, a vision for development and success targets for desired outcomes. Yet most of them faced the same BIG challenge. They were impeded by the mental blocks associated with past limiting beliefs, doubts about their abilities and constant identification with “not being good enough”.
Core beliefs about ourselves that are negative to our best interest are silent thieves that rob the vitality of dreams, make us lose sight of the vision and impede momentum. As part of discovering “what you have accepted as truth”, investigating the negative feelings and environments that generate doubt are they key to overcoming limiting beliefs. In order to successfully enable the integration of a new mindset it is important that we assess, investigate and identify the beliefs that accrued over time which form our existing mindset. We must then begin the process of eliminating beliefs that no longer align with our worldview so that we can activate the mental transformation that is a prerequisite for establishing a new mindset.
“Beliefs are the operating system of the cell, and just like computer software, they can be changed to upgrade the system.” — Dr. Bruce Lipton
PBS is Mindset Broadcast
Personal Belief System (PBS) is the organization of beliefs into a system that ultimately shapes our worldview. Beliefs serve as the building blocks for our experiences and it’s important that we understand and discover our existing beliefs. Beliefs in practice form our mindset. The term mindset and belief system are quite often used interchangeably but convey completely different perspectives. As stated earlier, beliefs make up the ideas, notions and values that you believe convey the truth. These individual beliefs, when consolidated, establish our mindset or the guiding principles that govern our view of the world we live in. Mindset is even more subjective and based primarily on your internal perceptions, impulses and desires.
Mindset is your mental image of what you want to be in your life — your desires, aspirations and the resulting action plan that will advance your efforts to achieve the desirable outcome. Dr. Kendra Cherry, author of “The Everything Psychology Book” describes mindset as a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself that influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. So, our mindset represents a culmination of our beliefs and serves as the “looking glass” for how we perceive the world. We perceive the world based on how it relates to our mindset or view of ourselves in the world in relation to our perception.
Eckhart Tolle in his book “A New Earth Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” provides great insight on the impact that our beliefs impress on our circumstances, relationships and events. Tolle states, “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment” This ties a direct connection to beliefs and experiences but also emphasizes the importance of staying in the “now” with focus and not dwelling on the past.
Which brings us back to the initial question What have you accepted as truth?
What we have accepted as truth is reflected in our beliefs and mindset. We have established that our belief system is the foundation for our mindset and serves as the building blocks for our world view. Our mindset frames how we relate to the world and is largely responsible for our experiences, circumstances and events that take place in our lives. When we adjust our mindset so that it aligns with our goals, desired experiences and dreams we have made the most important step toward achievement.
2 Corinthians 5:17 states, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Aligning beliefs and mindset represents a new YOU. The old mindset has vanished and the “New Wine” of ideas, creativity and life experiences can be cultivated in a state of mind free of sabotage from past limitations. “I was exhilarated by the new realization that I could change the character of my life by changing my beliefs. I was instantly energized because I realized that there was a science-based path that would take me from my job as a perennial “victim” to my new position as “co-creator” of my destiny. (Prologue, xv)”― Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D.
In the first phase of entrepreneurial training at Genesis Block our initial exercise with founders is to have them create a three year success target. This success target reflects their milestones, goals and desired outcome from the entrepreneurial venture. Goal setting and the achievement of milestones play an important role in keeping us on track as we work towards accomplishments. We then develop a business development strategy to support the three year success target to provide a measuring stick from which they evaluate their performance in relation to the targets.
This methodology can be applied to all aspects of life. Once the commitment is made to achieve a goal or desired outcome we must then orient our mindset to align with that outcome. Neville Goodard author of “Feeling is the Secret” states THE world, and all within it, is man’s conditioned consciousness objectified. Consciousness is the cause as well as the substance of the entire world.” In other words, we should begin to feel, act and operate with the attitude that desired outcome has already been achieved. Aligning the shift in mindset with the attitude that is already done provides the mental clarity and confidence to bring forth our dreams.
Modern science is beginning to validate with experiments the power of beliefs and its transformational role in our lives. According to Joyce Shaffer, author of “Neuroplasticity and Clinical Practice: Building Brain Power for Health” Neuroplasticity, the capacity of brain cells to change in response to intrinsic and extrinsic factors, can have negative or positive influence at any age across the entire lifespan. In other words “intrinsic factors” or what we believe can have negative or positive effects on our brain and how we perceive the world around us.
The world is your kaleidoscope to experience the life you’ve dreamed of living. It begins with an honest and non judgmental evaluation of your belief system. The next step is to align your beliefs with the contemporary version of the new “YOU”.
