The most crucial mindset switches every millennial entrepreneur has to make according to Gen-Y superstar, Daniel DiPiazza.
Anyone who follows Daniel DiPiazza knows the famous butter ball story. He was working at LongHorn Steakhouse in Atlanta scooping little balls of butter for the restaurant’s customers when his manager told him that the balls looked terrible and that he had to start all over again. As you can imagine, this moment was soul-crushing for innocent, 22-year-old Daniel.
Daniel was so shocked by the stupidity of the interaction that he quit right then and there, decided to launch a massively profitable online business, and become “entrepreneur famous” all in the span of a few days.
Just kidding! Daniel’s success has taken years of focus, dedication, and strategic action to get him to where he is today.
But we can never forget who Daniel was before it all started — just a regular 22-year-old kid in a LongHorn Steakhouse kitchen, wondering if there was something more than the minimum wage employee life.
The truth is, at the time, Daniel didn’t have any clarity on his skills. He didn’t have experience building a business. He didn’t have huge amounts of capital to invest. But what he did have was an unshakable mindset that would carry him through until he manifested the goals he had set out for himself.
Today, so many entrepreneurs want to skip over the “mindset stuff” and go straight to the strategies, tools, and systems to help them scale their online businesses. But according to D, this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. When you set the foundation for your business a powerful mindset, everything else in your business will produce bigger, better, more positive results.
I got to sit down with Daniel in LA a few weeks ago and talk about the importance of entrepreneurial mentalities and his brand new book, Rich20Something. (Check out the Snapchat action that I shared in my Facebook group!) Here are Daniel’s three biggest mindset tips for millennials looking to launch and scale hugely successful online businesses:
Develop the skill of patience
As millennials, we were raised with a structure that taught us one very misleading thing: every action we take produces some sort of immediate result. When we take a math test, we get a grade. When we eat our dinner, we get dessert. And because we automatically expect a reaction after everything we do, early stage entrepreneurs become bored and frustrated. Why? Because that linear structure that we were taught isn’t how the real world — and especially the entrepreneurial world — works. Today, the entrepreneurial lifestyle is praised as being fun and free, when in reality, it’s easy to get stuck, lost, and frustrated. This is when a lot of people will quit and head back to the 9 to 5. But that’s why it’s so important to accept that seeing successes in a new business can take time. The key isn’t to take it as a sign of failure, but instead, practice the skill of patience and keep going in your work.
Learn to listen more and speak less
You know what’s really overrated in the entrepreneurial space, according to Daniel? The extravert personality. There’s this weird misconception that the entrepreneurs who succeed are the ones who speak first or who speak the most, when in reality, the smartest people in the room are often the ones who are listening the most. “If you really pay attention, you’ll see that the ones who are the most productive in their businesses are the ones who are constantly listening.” And while they’re doing that, others are sitting in broadcast mode talking nonstop without providing any real value. Even in a business as successful as Rich20Something, Daniel recognizes that in order to become better and better in his space, he had to start listening a lot more.
Practice the art of reciprocity
At the end of the day, building a business is impossible if you lack the right relationships to help you grow. “With Rich20Something, I’ve learned how important it is to have people help you, which is why it’s so important to always be helping others on their end too,” said Daniel. And while it’s easy to get into the “solopreneur mentality” and get sucked into your own goals, it’s crucial to value and constantly nurture your relationships. You just never know when you’ll need that person, so it’s important to constantly be of value so that you can call on them when need be. Get into the habit of constantly reaching out to people, identifying their needs, and providing solutions that will help them reach their goals. They’ll do the same for you one day when you most need it.
Daniel’s new book, Rich20Something, is available in stores on May 2 and available for pre-order now. I got the opportunity to read the book, and I’m telling you, it’s pure gold. Get your hands on it and never let go. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing my thoughts and talking about the book in my Facebook group, Millennial Go-Getters, over the next few weeks. Feel free to join us!
Originally published at medium.com