Get Your Head Right: Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Independents

Flexibility is a major benefit of going solo. You can explore your interests, choose how and when you work, and pursue a life that’s deeply satisfying. The independent path also involves taking risks, making a bet on yourself, and going way outside of your comfort zone. At the end of the day, it’s an entrepreneurial journey that presents you with infinite strategic, business, and personal challenges.

The truth is, getting your mindset right makes everything else a lot easier. At Pollen, we have a shorthand for this—with the right mindset, everything is “figureoutable.”

As an independent, you’re your business’s CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, as well as product. There are ups and downs of client work, income, and outlook. That’s a lot for one person—so it’s normal to experience anxiety and stress. A healthy mindset can increase your resilience, improve your quality of life, and help you make better business decisions. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template, but there are patterns in how successful entrepreneurs approach their work. We surveyed the Pollen community to see what mindset shifts have helped them unlock parts of their business. While everyone’s journey is unique, and there is no one canonical path to any entrepreneurial journey, see if you recognize yourself in any of the experiences below.

1. From a limiting definition of success to a tailored set of goals

Everyone defines success differently. For some people, it’s about money in the bank. For others, it’s public recognition or social or political influence. It can also be as simple as being able to clock out at 3:00 with a clean conscience, a clear inbox, and a savings account that's on track.  

One of the beautiful things about independence is that you can define success on your own terms—so take the time to map out your own vision. You can consult our framework for designing your business to get started. You’ll feel more grounded in your goals, be better able to evaluate your progress, and understand why your path might look different from your peers’: You’re not doing it wrong (and neither are they), you’re just headed to different destinations. 

Defining success can also help you get where you want to be. Nir Eyal talks about this in his workshop on overcoming distractions, explaining that creating a plan for what you’ll do and when you’ll do it boosts productivity more than keeping a to-do list does. Although both strategies can help you get things done, the first is more effective because it contains a clear, specific vision of what it would look like to succeed. 

2. From scarcity to abundance

Many new independents operate with a limited start-up budget and financial responsibilities to deliver on, so it’s normal to feel some initial anxiety about your ability to win enough work. This is a scarcity mindset, and it encourages you to see yourself as in competition with others for a limited number of opportunities. When this happens, you’ll feel desperate for leads, take on any work that comes to you, and very effectively burn yourself out in the process. When you have a scarcity mindset, you’re playing to not fail, rather than playing to win. 

Moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset encourages collaboration and lets you take inspiration from the success of your peers. It also helps you make better business decisions. Your belief that there is enough work and wealth to go around will reduce the temptation to lower your prices and make it easier to say no to opportunities that aren’t a good fit. Remain focused on creating a business reflective of their values, rather than desperation for the next client.

3. From highs and lows to ebbs and flows

Salaried employees typically have fairly consistent workloads. You might work a bit more during busy seasons and enjoy some extra downtime during slower ones, but the differences tend to be small—and in most cases, you’ll take home the same amount of money each month.

When you start a consulting business, those rhythms go straight out the window—and some new independents struggle to adjust. Here’s one Pollen member on learning to embrace the ebb and flow:

A big mindset shift for me (even in just the month since I started my independent business) is the concept of “ebb and flow.” It’s the natural pattern of reaping and sowing that I really didn’t have to embody as an individual contributor at a larger organization—I always had work. As a solo business owner, I’m realizing that there will be periods when things ebb and feel scarce, but if I keep chipping away, there will eventually be flow.

Understanding these rhythms can reduce your stress levels: Instead of panicking when business is slow, you can take advantage of the natural ebb to rest and recharge before your next busy stretch. You’ll also make better financial decisions if you understand that one record-breaking month—whether high or low—doesn’t necessarily indicate a trend. 

4. From instant gratification to persistence

Business owners tend to be outcome-oriented. They’ve been setting SMART goals since middle school, get a special little thrill from checking off a task, and emphasize that clients should hire them—why?—because they get results.

These are excellent qualities, but if pushed to an extreme, they can lead you to seek instant gratification. You won’t reach your goals overnight, and your drive to achieve can make you feel like you’re failing when your rational mind tells you otherwise. 

To shift your mindset, try reframing persistence as an asset that you can nurture and deploy to your advantage. For example, say you spent all weekend bouncing between networking events, and you didn’t land a single client. If you see this as a failure, you’re missing the point. With patience, the results of your efforts will emerge months down the line.  

5. From the arrival fallacy to savoring the journey

The arrival fallacy is that belief that achieving a specific goal—such as paying off your student loans or hitting a specific revenue target—will make you happy. (Pollen expert-in-residence Austin Church discusses this in his quarterly planning sprint.) It can contribute to burnout by encouraging an unhealthy fixation on a final outcome at the expense of quality of life. It’s also unrealistic: Independence is a long-game, and no single achievement will cause everything to fall into place.

Avoid the arrival fallacy by pursuing an enjoyable and sustainable work-life balance. Use your goals to bring energy and clarity to your work, but don’t treat them as your sole reason for being. Set a weekly or monthly calendar reminder to help you maintain perspective. You’ll use this time to check in on your physical, mental, and social health. Be honest with yourself about what you learn: If you’re running on five hours of sleep a night and haven’t seen a friend in weeks, you might be placing too much importance on your destination and forgetting to enjoy the journey. After all, you’re here because you want to be.  

6. From competition to collaboration

Corporate culture celebrates competition. We talk about winning companies, industry leaders, and achieving dominance in a particular market. This attitude can have value—but what if it doesn’t sit right with you? Are you just not cut out for the business world?

Brand strategist, designer, and Pollen expert-in-residence Jamie Cox suggests reframing competitive analysis to prioritize collaboration. “Competitive analysis in the independent world is about collaboration, not competition,” she says. “With product-based brands, I’m thinking about how they can outperform the competition. I think the better approach as an independent is to understand what’s happening in your market and identify opportunities to differentiate from or work alongside your competitors.” 

Cox also stresses that a collaborative approach can help you build your referral network. “Independent and fractional work is based on relationships,” she says. “There’s plenty of work to go around.”

7. From fixed to growth

You’re an expert in your field (anyone who knows you could tell you that), but the unique challenges of independence can give you a run for your money. The responsibility to grow, build your client base, and generate enough revenue to support yourself—that’s a lot, and you’ll inevitably face setbacks. 

Embracing a growth mindset helps you learn from your mistakes, incorporate constructive criticism, and reframe challenging tasks as learning opportunities. Instead of interpreting failure as evidence that you aren’t up to a particular challenge, you’ll see it as a chance to grow. To develop a growth mindset, pay attention to your internal monologue and replace thoughts like “I’m not a strong editor” or “I’ll never be good at pitching” with “I’ve identified an area for improvement.”  

Sometimes, it may not even be your abilities that hold you back but your beliefs about your abilities. Identifying limiting beliefs reduces their power. If your inner voice tells you, “I can’t charge that hourly rate; nobody will pay it,” for example, you might respond with, “I’ve been conditioned to believe that my talents have limited value, but this belief isn’t rooted in reality.” Recognizing this assumption for what it is empowers you to set it aside and make better decisions in support of your business.

8. From seeking comfort to welcoming challenges

No matter how skilled and confident you are, you can expect to be challenged by independence. Are you a financial whiz who loves digging into a company’s books? Great—now how do you feel about running sales calls? Thrive in high-stakes pitch meetings? Well, how do you deal with rejection?

Discomfort is part of being an entrepreneur—so instead of interpreting it to mean that you’re out of your depth, reframe it as a sign that you’re growing. You can’t learn new things without leaving your comfort zone, so recognize discomfort as valuable, and seek it out. If you’re uncomfortable with public speaking, for example, you might join your local Toastmasters chapter or volunteer to give a talk at a local community college. 

9. From inflexibility to the lean methodology 

Use the lean startup methodology to move to market quickly, test your services with clients, and make adjustments based on what you learn—the assumption you’ll try new things and improve over time is baked into the approach. 

You can use the lean methodology to free yourself from the pressure to be perfect right away. Each sales call, project, and networking event can be treated as an experiment. What did you learn? What insight have you gained that can make your next sales call better? It can also help you develop better products and services more quickly: You’ll spend less time in the planning phase and replace guesswork with real data about what your customer needs. 

10. From the nine-to-five mindset to the as-needed approach

Just because Dolly Parton did it doesn’t mean you have to. Although common narratives about entrepreneurship can valorize the never-ending grind, your hustle doesn’t have to consume your life. There’s no inherent value in a 40- (or 60- or 80-) hour work week, and working less can also make you more efficient.

Here’s a Pollen member on breaking free from the tyranny of the nine-to-five:

One mindset shift I had to go through early on (coming from a nine-to-five background) was simply: I don’t have to work nine to five, and I don’t have to work eight hours a day.

I was so stuck in this mindset of “If I’m not at my desk between nine and five, I’m slacking, or not making as much as I could, or not working hard enough, or not whatever,” and I really had to get out of that mindset. Unsurprisingly, once I did, I found myself being a lot more productive and having a much better work-life balance.

As they say, more isn’t better; better is better.  

Unlocking an entrepreneurial mindset with Pollen

Just because you’re going solo doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. We understand the challenges of independence, and we’re committed to helping our members boost resilience, manage stress, and build sustainable and rewarding careers.

Our workshops and events can help you build an entrepreneurial mindset and navigate the challenges that come with building your business. For example, our Entrepreneurial Mindset sprint with Angela Parker helped members define their personal version of success, action on their values, adopt an abundance mindset, and clarify their professional statement of purpose on how they’ll fully show up for your clients and yourself each day.

We also have a community discussion channel devoted to mindset—a protected space where you can be vulnerable and ask questions—and our members and experts in residence are generous with advice. Learn more about Pollen membership.

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