Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? Did you see an opportunity / product / or idea that you just had to create? Is it in your DNA to forge your own path?

Whatever your reason for becoming an entrepreneur, it's important that you think like an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur isn't an inventor, a marketing or sales person, or an engineer. An entrepreneur doesn't build products or teams. An entrepreneur is a person who builds a business. And a business is an entity that (eventually) generates more revenue than it costs to generate that revenue (profit).

As an entrepreneur and founder of your company, you need to be constantly thinking about building a profitable business. Every product feature and marketing dollar spent should be evaluated on its ability to increase the ultimate profitability of your company.

Here are some concepts that I've learned that have helped me and companies I have worked with:

Build a business not a product. I've never met an entrepreneur who is satisfied with their product. You always see imperfections and ways to improve it. Some companies have great products. But there are no great products produced by bad companies - they went out of business a long time ago.

Embrace and Exploit Constraints. I'll explain more about this in other sections of this guide, but ultimately you have to become an expert at choosing the right things to do (and the things NOT to do) and doing them as well as you can quickly and inexpensively.

Trust Your Gut. As an entrepreneur you will, at times, be riddled with indecision or frustration. It's often a good idea to get advice, but ultimately you need to trust your gut. Nobody more than you will have to deal with the consequences, so knowing you owned the decision helps during those times.

Have Clearly Defined Goals. Set goals. Make them crystal clear. Close your eyes and imagine what the world looks like once you've achieved that goal. Literally. What does the office look like, your team, your customers, your product? Is it clear to you? If it's not clear to you, it probably won't be to your staff, your partners, or your customers. And if your goals aren't clear, then how do you know if you're "rowing in the right direction"?

Stay Focused. This is a hard one for most entrepreneurs (me included!). Once you have a clear goal, stay focused on making it reality. Become religious - no, evangelical - about it. The more you think, dream, and talk about it, the more you work on it, the more you'll live it.

Ignore the Noise. Be aware of what's going on in your industry (so you can talk intelligently about it) but ignore how it affects you. Just ignore it and keep growing your business. If anyone poses a real threat to your business your customers will tell you.

Own it. As the founder of your business, you have to "own it". That means you take the decisions, you set direction, you decide your future. Act like you do. Also, don't ever let your business own you. Stay in charge and build a business that generates profit as an entity that doesn't rely on you to continue.

(img src: //asiasociety.org/files/systems-thinking.png)