Entrepreneurial mindset can be learned: RMIT Activator

While some of us may have a greater natural propensity for entrepreneurship than others, Matthew Salier, director at RMIT Activator believes an entrepreneurial mindset can be fostered in anyone.

RMIT Activator is RMIT University’s home of entrepreneurship, working to instil an entrepreneurial mindset in its staff, students and alumni.

At the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Salier told Digital Nation Australia, “Anyone can have entrepreneurial thinking.”

He said, “This whole idea of, ‘You have to be born an entrepreneur, you have to be born with that hustle,’ I don’t necessarily subscribe to.”

Discontent with the status quo

Entrepreneurial thinking at its core is rooted in a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo, said Salier.

“The six words in business that always killed me is: ‘The way we've always done things’. You want people that are constantly saying, ‘I don't want to hear that. I want to talk about how we could do things and why we could do that’. That’s everything from incremental business improvement — the one-percenters that change things over time — to very transformational step-changes in a business.”

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Nejdeh Hovanessian, assistant director of the Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Centre (EPIC), at the American University of Armenia, who believes that an entrepreneurial mindset goes hand-in-hand with a growth mindset.

“As opposed to a stable mindset, which is very common in those people who prefer status quo, entrepreneurs are those people who are not accepting the status quo, and they are looking at changing the situation into something better,” said Hovanessian.

Entrepreneurial thinking depends on individuals seeking out and discovering new opportunities in the market, he said.

“Discovering the gaps, and how you can build upon that gap, you can build a success story upon that gap is very much important also.”

Risk-taking

According to RMIT Activator’s Salier, risk-taking is a key characteristic for entrepreneurial thinking.

“You need to commit to the fact that there's going to be some risk, and there's an equation there around risk and reward, but you need to commit resources to enable it to happen, and do it authentically,” said Salier.

In order to embed an entrepreneurial mindset across all functions of the business depends on infusing it into the culture of the business he said.

“Innovation in a company isn’t an ideas box in the corner," Sailer explained. 

“As long as you've got that license to operate, as long as there's an encouragement to challenge ways of doing and thinking, then it's possible in any organisation.”

Comfort with failure

According to Hovanessian, failure is a core component in the entrepreneurial journey, and becoming comfortable with failure is crucial in fostering entrepreneurial thinking.

“Failure is quite different from quitting, because failure is something imposed on an entrepreneur, but quitting is based on his or her own decision,” said Hovanessian.

“Being ready to accept failure, and to use that as an opportunity to build something upon that, it's very important.”

Editor's Note: Velvet-Belle Templeman travelled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as a guest of MCI Australia to report on the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.