Everything starts from your mind. Your thinking will determine your decision and your decision will determine your action. And your action will get you the result, whether you want it or not.

Therefore, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, first you have to adopt the right mindset. When you have the right mindset, you will make the right decision, which will lead you to take the right action. And if you take the right action, you will be able to produce the right result.

Here are 7 actions that will help you become a successful entrepreneur:

1. Be proactive

A successful entrepreneur is someone who is proactive and gets things done rather than someone who waits for things to happen and then respond. Your reactive mindset is not going to help you in your business.

This is exactly how Richard Branson started his Virgin Airline business. Instead of being stranded in the airport due to flight cancellation, he leveraged on his proactive mindset and solved the problem. He chartered an airplane and sold tickets to the stranded passengers. And the rest is history.

Everyone has dreams. Are you going to act on your dreams or are you just going to let it be a dream?

2. Be innovative

Just like Apple’s tagline, you need to “Think Different” to create outstanding success as an entrepreneur. This world is full of ordinary people who take orders, work without thinking and never question anything. That is why they are just ordinary.

Being an entrepreneur is different. You have to think differently than ordinary people and be innovative. Look at how Steve Jobs transformed the personal computer industry with Mac. He did it again with iPod in the music industry and then conquered the mobile phone industry with iPhone.

You have to think into the future and dream big enough to create change to the industry.

“Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” – Tom Freston

3. Trust yourself

Trust your ability, trust that you can do it and believe in your dreams. You have to be the first person to believe in yourself. There will be a lot of rejections, a lot of setbacks and a lot of mistakes waiting for you to get through.

Every successful entrepreneur trusts himself or herself that he or she can build something extraordinary. This is what allows ordinary people to tap into their maximum potential and create amazing results in life.

If you don’t trust yourself and your dreams, you would give up sooner than you think. People can produce outstanding success in their lives because they believe and persist with their dreams.

4. Never give up

The world as you know it would be very different if Henry Ford gave up his dream to mass produce cars. And can you imagine, there will be no Disneyland if Walt Disney gives up as well?

All the great successes are a result of someone’s tenacity and their mindset of never quitting. If you quit, you lose. As long as you did not quit, you stand a chance to win the game. So never give up.

5. Have fun

As an entrepreneur, you need to have fun as well. Regardless of whether it is in your life or business, you need to have fun to create great work.

Richard Branson said, “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” If it is not fun, you’d rather look for something else to do.

Having fun is one of the most underrated things in business that most people don’t take into consideration. Remember, your work is going to fill up a large part of your life. You want to have fun and have the passion when doing it.

6. Dare to take risk

Are you a risk taker? When I mention taking a risk, I don’t refer to taking a risk like gambling. I’m talking about taking calculated risk. Successful entrepreneurs study the situation, do the research and calculate the risk before they jump in.

There’s no point going into the game if you know you are going to lose. You go into the game because you know that you have a higher percentage to win the game. The same goes in business. Don’t jump into a business opportunity blindly. Study the situation and do the research.

Understand that you will go in only when you have a higher chance of winning. If you don’t have that competitive advantage of winning, it is not taking the risk; it is gambling.

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg

7. Be extraordinary

Dare to be different. If you cannot differentiate your business from others, you are in trouble. Everyone else has been taken; you just need to be yourself. It is the time when you stay true to your authentic self; you will be able to create the breakthrough because you are shining as yourself, and not others.

Another thing about being extraordinary is that you need to do the additional and go the extra mile. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little extra that you put in.

Every successful entrepreneur goes the extra mile, does something more, puts in more time, pour in more effort and take more action than ordinary people. That is why they are successful.

Some of these may not be your strength but you have to adopt them, practice them and live them. It may not be easy, and it will be challenging to practice them, but the reward will be well worth it. Keep these seven things in mind when becoming and entrepreneur.

How many of these do you use in your entrepreneurial journey? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!