There are 7 lessons golf taught me about being an entrepreneur, but they really became clear to me through the Master Key Experience (MKE) course. Together, they both have taught me 7 key lessons about being an entrepreneur/solopreneur. I hope these lessons can help you achieve your goals too!

#1 Mindset makes a difference

One of the things you may have heard is the biggest obstacle is the six inches between your ears.  This is true not only in golf but also in business.  Your mindset can make a difference either for good or for bad.

With golf, there is so much time to think. This makes it easy to have doubts about yourself and this can get in the way. The same is true with being a solopreneur. Typically, you’re by yourself in your office working away without a lot of input or social interaction.

One of the common things that happens is that your mindset or preconceived notions or ideas on earning money or making sales can get in the way of building your business. So, the six inches between your ears is one of the biggest things to pay attention to.

If you can control what goes on in your mind, then you’ll have much better success in your business. This idea is primary in the lessons golf taught me about being an entrepreneur.

One of the first steps in controlling your mind is learning how to control your body.  If you cannot control your body, you will never be able to control your mind.  I first learned about this in the MKE course and the power of the daily sit or meditation.

The world within is governed by mind.  When we discover this world we shall find the solution for every problem, the cause for every effect; and since the world within is subject to our control, all laws of power and possession are also within our  control. 

Charles F. Haanel

#2 The harder you try, the worse you do?

I’ve noticed this when I get up to hit the golf ball. In my mind, I’m thinking this shot is going to be so good. I’m going to smash it and it’s going to go for miles.

What usually ends out happening when I have thoughts like that is I top the ball and it dribbles a few feet down the fairway. The result is nowhere near what I had visualized in my mind.

Part of that is because I was trying so hard to hit the ball a long way. This is true also with building a business: sometimes the harder you try the more difficult it is. You end out coming across as desperate in what you’re doing.

People can sense that. And so, the result isn’t anywhere near what you’re anticipating because you’re trying harder and harder thinking it’s going be so great. You push, push, push, and as you are pushing harder and harder, people are backing up further and further.  They are thinking, oh no, this person is desperate. It may sound contradictory, but sometimes that the harder you try, the worse you’re going to do.

I don’t want to give the impression that you don’t have to work, because you do. But if you can stay within yourself, go with the flow and stay relaxed in the process, things will go much better for you.

#3 Enjoy the process more than the outcome

This ties into trying too hard. Enjoy the process of what you’re doing. Love the fact that you are helping people, providing value, creating videos, or creating your blog post.  When you love what you do and connect with people and enjoy the process of being an entrepreneur, then you will be getting out of yourself, and things will go your way.

…if we wish to be of service to others, we must have power…but to get it we must give it; we must be of service.  The more that we give the more we shall get.

Charles F. Haanel

With golfing and putting, especially, if you focus on your process, and what you do each time instead of the outcome of making the putt, you’re going to be much more relaxed and more likely to make the putt. Enjoy the process of what you’re doing.

In business, if you’re not enjoying it, people are going to be able to tell. If you’re not in the moment, you might be feeling desperate. If this is true, then people will be backing away from you and you’re not going to connect the way that you think.

#4 Be mindful of your brain going into hyperdrive

In addition to golf, I’ve played tennis, soccer, field hockey, other sports as well. With the other sports, everything is instantaneous. Tennis, you don’t have time to think it’s bam, bam, bam, reacting to each shot. Your responses are more instinctual. 

With golf, you might have up to 10 minutes between shots.

Because you have so much time between shots, your brain can go into hyperdrive. You start thinking about how that last shot went well. What did I do? How was I holding the club? What about my backswing? Where was my elbow?

When you get up to hit the ball again, you’re all tense and thinking about what you did the last time that you end up duffing the ball. Your brain gets too involved in the process and this can negatively impact your game up. 

Having your brain go into hyperdrive can also happen to you as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur/solopreneur you are typically working on your business by yourself.  This gives you lots of time to reflect and second guess yourself.  It is easy to start thinking:  

• I can’t do this because of …
• I’m uncomfortable selling to my friends…
• I don’t know how to make friends … 
• I’m shy so I can’t do this … 
• The list of excuses goes on…

As an entrepreneur, you may not have a support system. This makes it easy for your mindset to go down or for you to feel blocked because you have preconceived notions that may or may not be true, just another of the lessons golf taught me about being an entrepreneur.

#5 Don’t consume too much information

As a golfer trying to improve your game, you may read magazines, take lessons from multiple people and try different techniques that others have talked about.  You think to yourself, “That sounds good, I’ll give that a try.” Or “I don’t like what this instructor said about my swing so I will take lessons from someone else.”

It can have a bad outcome on your game if you try to implement all the tips and tricks you read about in the golf magazine or see on the golf channel. 

This reminds me of what is called the shiny object syndrome which occurs when you end out jumping from program to program hoping for success but not sticking with anything long enough to achieve success.  You may take action once or twice and if you don’t experience success, you think that it is the program that didn’t work.

You jump from program to program to program and any one of those things may have worked if you focused on it and gave it full attention. Because you’re busy jumping around, you’re not giving yourself a chance of success. 

If you are a solopreneur and you have been caught on the shiny object hamster wheel, then you may feel like your business is a shambles. You may be so confused now on what you should do because you think nothing works and you’re discouraged, and you’ve spent all this money and life isn’t going the way that you want.

#6 Find a mentor

Enter my next lesson: find a mentor. In your online business, it’s critically important to have a mentor that has been where you’ve been and who can help you in deciding what activity is going to make the biggest difference in your business. 

It is so easy to get caught up doing ancillary tasks that make you feel that you are busy. You may be busy doing things, but what you are busy doing may not be the things that are going to move your business in the right direction.

With a mentor or a coach who has gone through what you are going through, you can get direction on what to focus on and where your attention needs to be. 

If you have a mentor, you are going to experience success much sooner than you would have otherwise.

I have found the same to be true with golf. If you decide to take lessons, find one person that you connect with.  Stick with that person, do what they say, and take the steps they recommend and start diligently practicing.

If you jump around from one coach to another, you’re going to end up being confused. Finding a coach or a mentor is vital to your success in golf and your business. 

#7 Be willing to make mistakes before you get better

I remember playing tennis and then getting a lesson to change the way I served the ball. Once I started implementing what the instructor said, I couldn’t do it the new way and I also couldn’t do it go back to do it the old way.

I was ineffective for a while before things started to sink in and start making sense.  

If you have a golf lesson, you may experience frustration because you are learning a new skill.  In the end you will be a better golfer but during the process of learning your scores may go up and you may get frustrated with not playing well.

This is this is where a lot of people give up, throw up their hands and say forget it.

If you want to improve, you need to stick with the process.

This same lesson is true with doing YouTube videos for my online business. I know darn well my YouTube videos are slowly getting better the more that I do. I also know darn well my first bunch of videos were horrible, but I kept doing them. If I keep putting in the time and the effort to do better, my videos will improve, as has my life by practicing the lessons golf taught me about being an entrepreneur.

The same is true with writing my blog. Each time I do one, I work on finding better images, writing better quality content. You must be willing to stumble and fall before you get better.  We all start at the beginning. 

The key is to keep at it and keep taking action.  BE STUBBORN and don’t give up.  

Lessons Golf Taught Me About Being An Entrepreneur

So that’s the seven lessons golf taught me about being an entrepreneur. So, in summary, the seven things I’ve learned in golf and through the Master Key Experience:

1. Manage the six inches between your ears. 
2. Sometimes the harder you try, the worse you get. 
3. Enjoy the process more than the outcome
4. Keep your brain from going into hyperdrive
5. Don’t consume too much information (avoid shiny object syndrome) 
6. Finding a mentor/trainer/coach
7. Be willing to make mistakes in order to improve

It takes time to learn how to do something new.  I know for myself, I’ve been through college and years and years of training to do what I do for my day job.

My online business is no different. It may take longer because I’m doing it in the evening and on the weekends, but the benefit is that I get to do it from home on my own terms.

That is awesome in itself and so worth it. I love helping people.

Golf and the MKE have taught me so much about patience and life in general, but these 7 tips are gold to my life as an entrepreneur. I hope they help you on your life path too!