How do you keep your Entrepreneurial mind in shape?

I believe Indie Hackers' minds have a different approach to problems. Whether you are a designer, an engineer, a marketer, a salesperson, or all of this, we are all figuring out entrepreneurship (unless you have an MBA I guess). So I started thinking about how do other makers like me keep their minds in shape, and ask myself, do they employ strategies that maintain their entrepreneurial mind? Is there a magic formula with a few words that an entrepreneur can recite each morning to maintain her/his entrepreneurial mind?

I am sure it is important to create rituals, the same way professional athletes do. Most of the strategies are daily, pragmatic, and simple. Some might be specific to entrepreneurs; others may be generically useful for everyone. All are worth thinking about and sharing.

My workout 💪

Personally, I do this little exercise every time I stumbled upon a business that is intriguing to me, is: "How do they make money?"

Starting with this little question, the thought exercise often leads to a rabbit hole of questions and I learn a lot along the path. I learn about the industries involved and what's the current state of the industry.

"Is this industry healthy?"

"Does the money come from another industry?"

"Who their audience are?"

"How did they find their audience?"

"What are their communication channels?"

If it is a platform : "What's the user interest in using this?"

"Are there competitors?"

"Will they start monetizing users?"

"What is the 'next step to success'?"

I usually can visualize at least two steps ahead in each case. Each case often let me ask how much money they are making, which leads to more questions, which has a snowball effect.

Some people find their research fun — you might not like it. If you don't, I suggest practicing the exercise on a variety of topics: your industry, other industries that you don't have experience but would like to learn about, and some general topics.

I found that practicing this exercise is a lot of fun, especially if I find that: the business is not too complicated, there is healthy competition, and the product is cheap or free. The bigger the potential I find in the business model, the more time, energy, and excitement I would have. Almost every time, my assumptions are wrong in the end and this practice helps open my mind for new possibilities.

The importance of your mental model 🧠

This exercise wakes up your mind and helps you build a model of the business. While holding this model in your mind, you see things from different perspectives. It is not a bad idea to share your observations with other people — not only gets feedback, but also helps you to challenge yourself. It brings a new perspective and make clear what's really going on in the business.

Your model represents how you think about it and how you frame the business. The power of mental models lies in the ability to frame a problem or business opportunity and enable you to make decisions optimized with respect to a particular objective.
Mental models are an essential part of what people need to know to act successfully in the world around them. They are tools for thinking with.

Conclusion

Mental models have worked for me as an engineer ("How this app has been built?") and now I hope it will help me, and potentially you, in your entrepreneurial journey. I won't say I have the "dream" Entrepreneurial shape I would like to have, but I built some strength thinking like that. What's about you, what are your tricks you would like to share? Let's update each other. Thanks in advance!