Council Post: Eight Seemingly Harmless Habits That Hinder Entrepreneurial Success

For any aspiring business owner or entrepreneur, establishing the right practices and habits as part of your normal behaviors can set you on a path toward career success. However, there are a few habits that might actually be hindering your entrepreneurial journey rather than helping it. These habits might be things you consider to be completely harmless in the grand scheme of your total behaviors, and many entrepreneurs might not even see them as significant hurdles to overcome.

Yet, the longer you maintain these bad habits, the less likely you’ll be to encounter success as a result. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council examine some of the seemingly harmless habits they believe can hinder an entrepreneur’s progress and what they should consider doing instead.

1. Being Too Curious

Entrepreneurs are naturally curious. Sometimes, however, that curiosity can lead to endlessly searching for the next big thing instead of hunkering down to build the business at hand. Business is like farming—you have to till the soil, plant seeds and water often before you can harvest. Try to get curious about accounting, legal, sales, marketing and partnerships, as these are the tools of the proverbial farm you are working on. – David Boehl, GoLastMinute

2. Overthinking

Overthinking can be the reason you never do something or take that next step. I think we all naturally think about things and weigh the pros and cons, but some people just overthink everything. They keep saying “what if.” Part of being an entrepreneur is making hard decisions. If we overthought everything, we would never make a move. You have to think about it and move forward. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s just part of it. For me, I started my business while I worked full time. I was so scared to quit my job and take on my business full time instead. It took me four years! That’s four years I could have built my business faster, made more money and expanded my team, but I kept overthinking the risk. Think about it, analyze it and make a move. – Lisa Collum, Top Score Writing

3. Being A Perfectionist

Striving for perfection is a major form of resistance that can hold an entrepreneur back. Contrary to what most people think, perfection can be a covert form of procrastination. When you reach for perfection, you may well be trying for something that doesn’t exist or a goal that will only change its shape once you get close to it. Try to do your best, but remember that any product, service and business will always be a work-in-progress. There’s never an end date for improvements. Whatever you do, try to do it well, but avoid demanding perfection because it will use up your time and put your goals on hold for longer than necessary. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

4. Being Timid

You can’t be timid in your approach to knock down doors. In order to make something happen, you have to be relentless in your quest to create opportunities for yourself. Impatience can actually be a good attribute in this case, as you may not be afforded the time to wait around for responses or be gifted opportunities. If 999 people slam the door in your face, you may find success behind number 1000. Passion and persistence are recognized and rewarded in business, and you can’t be afraid to show it. – Justin Lefkovitch, Mirrored Media

5. Not Asking For Help

Not asking for help or not developing a support system can hinder an entrepreneur’s success. When I first started in business more than a decade ago, I didn’t have any support from experienced entrepreneurs in my industry, so I learned by trial and error. This made the learning curve so much longer than it needed to be. If I had a mentor or a network to ask questions to, my early days as an entrepreneur would have been a lot easier. But I didn’t—it was just me. So, my advice is to get a mentor so you don’t have to go through your journey alone. – Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

6. Jumping From Idea To Idea

Jumping from idea to idea or from one strategy to another one means that you’re constantly switching tracks. You’re not pursuing any single approach long enough to see results. Instead of trying to go with the next marketing or leadership trend, try one idea and then follow through with it for a few months or even a year. There are times when a method of leading or communicating just doesn’t work for you. But most of the time, you need to develop a strategy and simply work on it until it becomes more natural. You’ll see better results and will have the time to work out the kinks in any program if you stick with it long enough. – Blair Williams, MemberPress

7. Checking In Too Regularly

Checking in too regularly can hold your team back. As an entrepreneur, I realized that I was getting into the habit of micromanaging certain projects and checking in too much in an effort to control things. It is vital to learn how to delegate and to empower your employees to make decisions. While it can sometimes feel like taking your hands off the steering wheel, that discomfort will help you and your team grow. – Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage

8. Always Answering Emails

On the surface, answering emails in a quick, timely manner is a positive trait. You are giving your team and your customers instant feedback when you respond to their emails right away. This can be taken too far though. Leaving your email open all day can lead to distractions. Every time an email pops up in your notifications and you choose to answer it, you are torn away from the current task at hand. If this happens all day, you will have a hard time focusing on what actually needs to get done. I find the best way to answer emails is in time slots. Schedule your day so you have designated times to answer emails. This type of schedule helps me focus on my daily goals and stay productive throughout the day without being constantly torn from one thing to the next. – Shaun Conrad, Guitar Repair Bench

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