7 Ways To Find Big Problems With Your Floundering Business
Discover seven powerful frameworks that offer unique perspectives on avoiding getting lost as an entrepreneur. Learn how to stay grounded, grow your business, and become the best version of yourself with these actionable insights.
Entrepreneurship is an exhilarating journey, full of highs and lows, opportunities and challenges. But it’s also a journey that can often leave you feeling lost, unsure of your next steps, and overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. To navigate this complex path and become the best version of yourself, you need more than just grit—you need guiding frameworks that offer different perspectives on thriving as an entrepreneur.
These seven frameworks are designed to help you avoid getting lost on your entrepreneurial journey. They provide insight into finding your purpose, mastering your mind, taking care of your well-being, scaling your business, and ultimately becoming a leader who succeeds and leaves a lasting impact.
Let’s explore these seven perspectives, each offering unique guidance on how to stay grounded, focused, and aligned with your goals as an entrepreneur.
Mike Parsons
The Entrepreneur’s Journey: Finding Purpose and Direction
The Entrepreneur’s Journey framework is all about understanding who you are and where you’re going. It starts with Ikigai, the Japanese concept of “reason for being.” Knowing your Ikigai gives you a clear sense of purpose—a North Star that guides your decisions and actions. Without this sense of purpose, it’s easy to get lost in the fog of entrepreneurship, chasing quick wins without a deeper reason for pursuing your path.
As you move forward, you’ll encounter challenges that test your resolve. This is where Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things comes in, offering practical advice on making tough decisions when there are no easy answers. The Entrepreneur’s Journey also recognizes that success isn’t just about individual effort; it’s about building and leading a high-performance team. Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team provides a blueprint for creating a cohesive, trust-based team that delivers results.
Finally, authentic entrepreneurial leadership requires moving beyond the day-to-day and embracing a higher calling. Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last pushes you to lead within your organization and in your broader community, sharing your wisdom and paying it forward.
Key Takeaways:
• Discover your purpose with Ikigai to guide your journey.
• Confront challenges head-on with practical decision-making.
• Build and lead a high-performance team.
• Embrace leadership that extends beyond your business.
Mike Parsons
The Mastermind’s Journey: Mastering Your Mind
Your mind is your most powerful tool as an entrepreneur, but it can also be your most significant obstacle if not properly harnessed. The Mastermind’s Journey framework is about gaining control over your thoughts and using them to your advantage.
The first step is journaling. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way introduces the practice of morning pages—a daily habit of writing that helps clear mental clutter and bring clarity to your thoughts. Once your mind is clear, you can focus on the next step: deep work. Cal Newport’s Deep Work emphasizes the importance of focused, uninterrupted work in achieving mastery. By dedicating time to deep work, you move beyond surface-level productivity and make real progress toward your goals.
As you continue this journey, you’ll encounter problems that require clear thinking and sound decision-making. Rolf Dobelli’s The Art of Thinking provides a collection of mental models that help you avoid common cognitive biases and think more critically. Lastly, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning teaches you that regardless of your challenges, your mindset and attitude ultimately determine your success.
Key Takeaways:
• Journal regularly to clear your mind and gain clarity.
• Embrace deep work for focused, meaningful progress.
• Use mental models to make better decisions and avoid biases.
• Cultivate resilience and a growth mindset.
Mike Parsons
The Wellness Warrior’s Journey: Prioritizing Your Health
Entrepreneurship often involves long hours, high stress, and a tendency to neglect one's own well-being. The Wellness Warrior’s Journey framework reminds us that to be our best, we must take care of our mind, body, and soul.
Start with sleep. Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep emphasizes the critical importance of sleep for cognitive function, emotional regulation, and overall well-being. Prioritizing sleep puts you in the best position to tackle the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Next, focus on your diet. Catherine and Luke Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition offers a common-sense approach to eating well, emphasizing natural, unprocessed foods that fuel your body and mind. Combined with regular exercise and mobility work, as outlined in Kelly Starrett’s Becoming a Supple Leopard, this holistic approach keeps your body in peak condition.
Finally, emotional well-being is just as important as physical health. Thibaut Meurisse’s Master Your Emotions provides practical tools to help you manage your emotions, avoid being overwhelmed by stress, and maintain a positive outlook even in challenging times.
Key Takeaways:
• Prioritize sleep to optimize your cognitive and emotional health.
• Maintain a balanced, natural diet to fuel your body and mind.
• Incorporate regular exercise and mobility work to stay physically fit.
• Master your emotions to stay resilient and focused.
Mike Parsons
The Upgrader’s Journey: Embracing Lifelong Growth
Entrepreneurship isn’t a one-time endeavor—it’s a lifelong journey of growth and evolution. The Upgrader’s Journey framework is for those committed to continually improving themselves and their businesses.
At the core of this framework is habit formation. James Clear’s Atomic Habits shows how small, incremental habits can lead to significant, long-term change. By building positive habits and eliminating negative ones, you create a foundation for ongoing success.
A growth mindset is equally essential. Carol Dweck’s Mindset teaches you that challenges and setbacks are opportunities for growth, not obstacles. This mindset helps you embrace new opportunities, learn from failures, and keep pushing forward.
Designing your life intentionally is another crucial element of this journey. Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans uses design thinking principles to help you experiment with different paths and discover what aligns with your goals and values.
Finally, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers reminds you that extraordinary success isn’t a matter of luck—it’s about hard work, perseverance, and making the most of the opportunities that come your way.
Key Takeaways:
• Build positive habits that lead to long-term success.
• Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth.
• Use design thinking to shape your life and career intentionally.
• Understand that hard work and perseverance lead to extraordinary success.
Mike Parsons
The Expert to Manager to Leader Journey: Evolving Your Role
Entrepreneurship often requires you to evolve—from expert to manager to leader. The Expert to Manager to Leader Journey framework helps you navigate these transitions effectively.
It starts with developing range. David Epstein’s Range challenges the idea that deep specialization is the only path to success. Instead, it encourages you to create a breadth of skills across multiple domains, making you more adaptable and capable in various situations.
As you transition from expert to manager, critical thinking becomes increasingly important. Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow teaches you how to blend intuitive thinking with more deliberate, analytical decision-making.
When you step into leadership, Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive guides you to manage yourself and others with excellence. Finally, Jocko Willink’s Extreme Ownership instills the mindset that leaders must take full responsibility for their outcomes and lead their teams with accountability and integrity.
Key Takeaways:
• Develop a range of skills to become more adaptable.
• Hone your critical thinking abilities to make better decisions.
• Become an effective executive by managing yourself and others well.
• Take extreme ownership of outcomes and lead with accountability.
Mike Parsons
The Small to Medium to Large Business Journey: Scaling with Purpose
As your business grows, the challenges you face evolve. The Small to Medium to Large Business Journey framework guides you through scaling up with purpose and intention.
Starting small, Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup teaches you to experiment, explore, and find product-market fit without the need for significant capital. As your business grows, Gino Wickman’s Traction helps you implement the systems and processes needed to manage the complexity of a larger team.
At scale, strategy becomes the key differentiator. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy shows you how to create uncontested market space and unlock new growth opportunities. Finally, Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma warns against complacency and helps you stay vigilant against disruption, even at the top.
Key Takeaways:
• Start small and bootstrap to find product-market fit.
• Implement systems and processes to manage growth.
• Unlock strategic value by creating uncontested market space.
• Stay vigilant against disruption as your business scales.
Mike Parsons
The Product-Market Fit Journey: Building a Sustainable Business
Achieving product-market fit is the foundation of any successful business. The Product-Market Fit Journey framework focuses on finding and maintaining that fit as your business evolves.
In the early stages, Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup teaches you the build-measure-learn loop, which is crucial for testing and validating your product ideas. Once you’ve gained traction, Dan Olsen’s The Lean Product Playbook helps you refine and scale your product to meet customer needs better.
As your business grows, Shannon Susko’s Metronomics provides a roadmap for sustainably scaling your operations. Finally, Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up shows you how to take your business to the next level by scaling your entire organization based on your product’s success.
Key Takeaways:
• Use lean principles to validate and refine your product.
• Scale your product to meet evolving market needs.
• Build scalable systems for sustainable growth.
• Scale your organization based on product success.
Conclusion: Becoming the Best Version of Yourself as an Entrepreneur
These seven frameworks provide different perspectives on how to avoid getting lost as an entrepreneur and, more importantly, how to continually grow, evolve, and become the best version of yourself. Whether you’re focusing on your personal growth, mastering your mind, prioritizing your well-being, or scaling your business, these frameworks offer a comprehensive guide to navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship.
Remember, the journey is never linear. There will be twists and turns, highs and lows, and moments of uncertainty. But with these guiding frameworks, you’ll always have a roadmap to help you stay on course, overcome challenges, and thrive as an entrepreneur.
Wherever you are on your journey, take a moment to reflect on which of these frameworks resonates with you today. Open that door, step through, and continue your journey with purpose, clarity, and confidence.