Self-Discipline, the father of entrepreneurship

Earlier in the year, before I landed a summer internship with a Great Lakes-area Venture Capital firm, I sifted through a stack of job postings to figure out where I would fit best.  It was common for applications to mention that their business was looking for "people with an entrepreneurial spirit".  This was phrased in multiple ways in different postings - sometimes as "innovative", or "a self-starter". 

But businesses specifically involved with entrepreneurship - commonly high-growth start-ups and venture capital firms - often described the entrepreneurial trait in different ways.  They would say they were looking for people who were self-driven, determined, or passionate with discipline.  So what's the difference?

When you work as a small part of a large business, you often have goals set out for you - sell X products, write X programs, design X spreadsheets.  And often, innovation in this line of work involves taking the time to figure out new ways to sell more products, write faster programs, or design more efficient spreadsheets. 

But when you work as a large part of a small firm or start-up, you may not always have goals laid out in black-and-white.  Much more responsibility lies on the shoulders of men and women who must not only do their job, but also define their job. 

That's where self-discipline comes into play.  With more responsibility comes much more indecision, stress, and soul-searching.  Self-discipline is vital to combating these with a healthy mentality.

John Song, a serial entrepreneur and avid blogger, said that optimism is the mother of entrepreneurship.  If so, then self-discipline is certainly the father.  I've gotten plenty of advice on how to stay self-disciplined when I started preparing for my first 5k run, so I attempted to consistently summarize, in just three steps, the best advice I've received.

1.  Understand your motivation.  Why are you doing this?  What benefit will it have for you or for others?

2.  Remove distractions.  An intense focus is needed to create a major change.  Focus on what is important, and cull the distractions and time-wasters from your life.

3.  Act as the person you want to be.  Want to be a marathon runner?  Act as though you already have the discipline of a marathon runner - train like one, eat like one, think like one, and before you know it you will become a marathon runner.  This trick works with all things in life as well.