Have you ever wondered how to stop being a wantrepreneaur? Of course you have, that’s why you searched “how to stop being a wantrepreneur.” Well, you’ve come to the right place, this article will help you stop being a wantrepreneur. You’ll finally be able to take action, move towards your goals, and start a successful business.
Before we can stop being a wantrepreneur, let’s first define what a wantrepreneur is…
What is a Wantrepreneur?
When I was younger, I had all these big dreams. One week I would want to own a chain of gyms, by the next week it would be the grand idea of franchising, and then real estate. “What’s next,” you might be thinking. Those were my thoughts exactly.
Like my younger self, many of us are wantrepreneurs. Wantrepreneurs are people that “want” to be entrepreneurs or business owners but lack the clarity and action to stick to their ideas and build a functional business. Now I can’t say I am perfect, I still certainly struggle to focus on one big goal, and I am definitely not a millionaire serial entrepreneur, but I’ve still learned a few tricks in my short life.
How do you stop being a wantrepreneaur? That’s a great question.
How to Stop Being a Wantrepreneur
I could just pull a Nike and tell you to “Just Do It,” and while that would technically be true, it wouldn’t be very helpful for anyone. Instead, I will give you a few stories and a few action steps that I have learned to apply in the last few years of battling this indecision disease.
Disease? “Don’t you think that’s a bit far Ryan?”
No. No I don’t, but I can see you’re skeptical. Let me explain the symptoms of wantrepreneurship to let you self-diagnose and self-treat it.
The Symptoms of Wantrepreneurship
Do you ever find yourself, a highly motivated individual, reading through dozens of books and articles, listening to podcast after podcast, and watching YouTube video after YouTube video on starting and operating a business?
But wait… something is wrong… you don’t even own a business, and you have taken minimal to no steps towards creating a business.
Let’s do a little entrepreneurial health checkup:
- You are excited about ideas but never follow through?
- You reach out to contacts but as soon as there is resistance you give up?
- You know a lot about business but haven’t had the chance to apply it?
- You move from one idea to another in a matter of weeks?
- Do you see others succeed and you’re confused on how they did it?
- You’re too scared to reach out to a supplier or ask a friend about your idea?
- You want to keep your business private, just in case it fails…
If any of these questions and statements resonated with you, don’t worry. All of those bullet points were me at one point or another, and most likely, all of us have at least experienced one of these thoughts. That makes you human.
You may have wantrepreneurism, but you can still be cured. Before I tell you the steps to the cure let me first share a quick story with you.
My Wantrepreneurism Didn’t Change Until I Did
When I was in college, I still had all those same big dreams. This business or that business, but what I never did was focus on one idea and stick with it. There was always some resistance, or I’d run into a problem that would cause me to jump ship, ironically, to another ship.
The other day I texted one of my closest friends saying how stressed I was because I didn’t feel like I was moving forward or progressing in my career and business. After slightly insulting me for being narrow minded, he said this…
“Pick one thing and focus on that one thing until it works.”
He is 100% right. The problem doesn’t lie within my ideas, my ambition, or my skillset. The flaw is inconsistent action.
Of course, I knew this internally. I am an athlete. I am used to training hard, seeing slow progress, and eventually breaking through to new heights. The difference between sports and business is this.
Sports you can feel progress and with business, sometimes you can’t. The most important thing for me was changing my mindset from a sideliner to a player. You can have all the right calls, pick the perfect plays, and even challenge the referee from the sidelines, but the players are the ones that make the game.
No one scores by studying perfect technique and then sitting down. They score by practicing on the field. This is something that resonated with me. Stop being a viewer and start being a player. Stop picking the right plays and start executing them.
Here are three action steps to help you move your ideas into action.
How to be an Action Taker and Stop Being a Wantrepreneur
If you find those symptoms above resonate with you, but you have the energy and passion to stop being a wantrepreneur, these next three steps will show you exactly what you need to do.
Stop Being a Wantrepreneur Step 1: Identify the Cause
Everyone is a little bit different when it comes to their hesitations. The first step to stop being a wantrepreneur is to take out a pencil, pen, or keyboard and put on your critical thinking brain. Take 5-10 minutes to write down what doubts come into your head when you think about your business ideas.
Is it fear of losing money? Fear of judgement? Feeling unequipped? Whatever those things are define them, write them out and put a question mark next to them. Now ask yourself why you fear these things. This can be the hardest part, but I promise you that if you want to stop being a wantrepreneur, then you must first figure out yourself.
Once you’ve written down your doubts and why you are doubtful, now it’s time for you to write down your best case scenario with your business. Does this idea provide time freedom, is it a passion for you even if you have to work long hours, or maybe you could sell the business for millions. Think big but think realistically. Are the benefits of trying greater than potential loss? The answer is most likely.
Stop Being a Wantrepreneur Step 2: Change Your Mindset
As the famous Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe said about mindset and determination…
“Everything is hard before it’s easy.”
Changing your mindset can be incredibly difficult. If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you just change your mindset to believe in yourself? It’s not an easy task, but you still want to stop being a wantrepreneur, right?
Entrepreneurs take risks, they do hard things, and they get comfortable being uncomfortable. The easiest way to challenge your mindset is to challenge yourself physically. What do I mean by that?
What I mean is that you need to take physical actions to build your confidence muscle. It’s nearly impossible to talk yourself into a better mindset. You can’t convince yourself to be more confident, to take more risk, or to stop being a wantrepreneur. You have to start taking the next smallest action step.
I will give you an example. Let’s say I want to start flipping furniture on Facebook Marketplace as a side hustle. The next smallest action step would be to make a Facebook account, the next smallest step would be to search for furniture to flip, and the next reach out to buyers, and the next etc.
As you can see all of those individual steps are easy when they are broken down into small digestible steps. Ten to twenty small digestible steps later and I have a table that I am sanding down, refinishing, and selling to a buyer (this is based on a real example from my life).
After all this is done, your mindset will have changed. You’re no longer a dreamer… you’re a doer.
Stop Being a Wantrepreneur Step 3: Be Consistent
The last step to stop being a wantrepreneur is to be consistent. This is the hardest but most crucial step in the entire process. A lot of people have fallen short of their dreams, simply because they don’t stay consistent in their mindset and actions.
A great example of consistency is Warren Buffet. He slowly built his business and wealth. He made his first million at 32, then after years of consistency he made his first billion at 56, and at 94, the time of righting this, he is worth 139 billion. That’s no overnight success. He was consistent. As he famously said…
“Successful investing takes time, discipline, and patience. No matter how great the talent or effort, somethings just take time; You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
So, stay the course. Keep showing up, keep pitching your ideas, keep selling your product, keep casting your vision, and most importantly keep taking those small steps every single day.
If you want to stop being a wantrepreneur then it all starts by just doing it. You just keep doing it repeatedly, even when it’s hard.
This blog is something that I have determined to pursue repeatedly. You as my readers are here to keep me accountable, and one day you will both enjoy the fruit of this site.
Now Stop Being a Wantrepreneur and Go be an Entrepreneur
You’ve heard all three steps to stop being a wantrepreneur, now it’s time to apply those steps. Go take action on what you learned today. Talk to a supplier or pitch your idea to a friend. Whatever seems like the first simplest step. That’s all you need to take.
I hope this article helped you, the same way it has helped me.
Until the next article.
**Hi, I am your author Ryan Lisota, and I am on a journey to educate students of all ages. I am young, just like you and I have a goal to be on Forbes 30 before 30. Help me make that dream come true by reading another article here or subscribing to my newsletter here.**
Thank you!
