The Entrepreneurial Mindset

By Matt Hannan, Faculty

In undertaking this entrepreneurial journey, I have been pondering how to express the value to the greater community. As image bearers of God, there are so many universals that apply in all aspects of life. One principle that Christians in particular appreciate is this: belief vastly changes one’s perspective. For many, a Risen Savior, atonement for another’s sin, eternal life, and so on, are impossible to accept; and so belief in Jesus Christ remains impossible. We know that belief is the evidence of the unseen. What is invisible to us now is quite real and will be visible on the Last Day. A new mindset towards this reality, an ability to see the unseen, and we become believers in what was once regarded as foolishness. And how radically different life looks after that change!

So what has this to do with entrepreneurship?

Think of the great people of our age. What is a near-universal difference between them and the average person? Mindset. What allows an athlete to perform under incredible stress, a CEO to revolutionize an industry, or a teacher to reach a difficult student with a love of learning? They can see beyond the immediate difficulties; belief carries them through in a way that others may fail, even others with greater natural abilities. Belief limits possibilities as well. Those who find things easy may give up under stress, believing a positive outcome to be impossible. Mindset can cause two similar people in two similar circumstances to have vastly different results.

Now this has incredible application in all areas of life. We do not merely hope to be sanctified, successful, productive, etc. Rather, we believe it can be accomplished and work towards those ends. The farmer does not hope vegetables will grow, he plants and prepares as best he can, believing that his work will produce fruit and a harvest in the future. Do not believe yourself to be unfruitful soil, but be renewed of mind today to work with diligence and confidence that in honoring Christ your work will one day be revealed to be fruitful. You can think like an entrepreneur, no matter what your present circumstances may be.