Top entrepreneurs are few and far between. So everybody always wants to know how they do what they do. It’s not just being smart or even strategic. Often, it’s just their basic habits that set them apart from the rest of the crowd. 

The following are some of the things that top entrepreneurs are doing that you’re probably not. 

Embracing Failure

Nobody goes into business wanting to fail. But for the vast majority of people, it is the primary outcome. Most people who start businesses don’t become rich.

Unfortunately, our society teaches us the opposite. It portrays business people as ultra successful while failing to give adequate coverage to the countless individuals who didn’t succeed. 

The top entrepreneurs, however, don’t let society pull the wool over their eyes. They know that the odds are stacked against them. So they embrace failure, accepting it at every turn. If things work out for the best, they take it as a bonus, not something that has to happen. 

Focusing On Branding

New entrepreneurs tend to believe that their product and service is everything – the sum total of their efforts. But once you get out there into the market, you soon see that that’s not the case. In fact, customers seem to care more about how your brand appears than the actual nuts and bolts of your services. 

Going big with marketing is something that all top entrepreneurs seem to intuitively understand. They know that their customers want accessible solutions they can relate to, not industry-beating features or add-ons. 

Making Tough Decisions

In business, you have to make tough decisions all the time. If you don’t, your business could go under in a matter of weeks. 

Unfortunately, many leaders are unwilling to have hard conversations with people. And that affects their companies’ overall performance in the long-term. 

You probably know you have some tough decisions to make yourself. Do you need to fire an unproductive employee? Do you need to take the enterprise in a different direction? Should you be opening more locations? 

Top entrepreneurs don’t prevaricate. Instead, they know that making big decisions is a necessary part of the role. Sometimes you have to do the hard things to make life easier for you down the road. 

Outsourcing What They Don’t Understand

Why do so many top companies use managed IT services? The reason is actually pretty straightforward. It’s because management doesn’t understand the technical computing side of their operations. 

Top entrepreneurs intuitively understand that they should attempt to do things that they don’t understand. Instead, they rely on outside companies to take care of it for them, taking the weight of responsibility off their shoulders. This action frees them up to focus on their core competence and meet the needs of their customers directly. 

Planning Long-Term

The best entrepreneurs always play the long game. They know that getting to the top of the pile meanings waiting longer and working smarter than anyone else. 

Just look at what Jeff Bezos did with Amazon. Back in the 1990s, he founded a small internet bookstore he hoped would make a profit. It did, and soon went on to become the largest e-commerce company in the world. 

Planning long-term was always a part of Bezos’s strategy. He barely took any money from the company during its first couple of decades. However, by the end of the process, he was the richest man in the world, muscling all the other tech billionaires out of the way. 

Don’t just think one or two years down the road. Consider the shape you want your enterprise to take through time and how you can use it to serve your customers. 

Building Luck

Some entrepreneurs get lucky. But that’s only because they create the conditions that make getting a lucky break more likely. 

Luck isn’t something that just pops up from nowhere. Usually, there’s a subtle backstory which explains why a person is in the right place at the right time. 

Creating your own luck usually involves doing certain things that will make it more likely your life will be successful. For instance, you might start associating more with elite people or create an online community you can then leverage for the next stage in your master plan. It all starts with small changes that grow and grow through time. 

Following The Value

People like the idea of “following their passions” in life. But entrepreneurs don’t view the world in such a self-centred way. For them, it’s not about what they can get out of their work, but what they can produce for other people. 

There’s an important difference here. We all know the art-lover who gave up their high-paying career in finance to work as a painter. But these individuals rarely succeed financially. 

Entrepreneurs who understand value, however, do. They have an intuitive feeling for what consumers want, and they deliver it, making themselves vast amounts of money in the process. Their so-called “passion” rarely sees the light of day. 

Giving Up On Being Rich

Have you ever noticed that top entrepreneurs rarely indulge in life’s excesses? Instead, they tend to live materially modest lives. 

To the wealthy and successful, being “rich” is primarily just for show. Having a massive house with a swimming pool is nice, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the quality of a person’s life. Nor does it help you financially. In fact, all that overhead can take a toll on your net worth. 

Try giving up being rich and just focusing on what you can offer other people. If they like it, then the money will naturally flow. 

Slowing Down

Lastly, many of the world’s top entrepreneurs love indulging in so-called “dead time.”

But what the heck is this? Essentially, it’s just putting everything down and focusing on something completely different for a while. Many leaders, for instance, meditate in the morning. They clear their minds of thoughts and just experience what it’s like to be conscious. Others go for long walks in the country or spend time away in isolated retreats, cooking and so on. 

Slowing down allows your mind to catch up. And it allows you to process your thoughts, giving you added creativity when you finally decide to return to the office.