Welcome back to another episode of The Hard Thing Podcast.

I’m your host, Justin Lewis and this is The Forge, a special show on thursdays where we take a closer look at what it actually looks like to do hard things including our personal wins and failures. When I say we, I usually mean myself and my cohost Ty Crockett, but today I am flying solo so you’ll have to bear with me. I know that generally it’s a better show with Ty on, but we’ll press on anyways.

Before we get to today’s show, a couple quick announcements.

First of all, if you’d like to submit a challenge to myself or Ty, go to thehardthingpodcast.com/submit-challenge. Each submission will get a shoutout on air. These challenges are great ways for you to see someone else doing a hard thing.

Next, I’d like to invite you to go to ourrescue.org and learn about one of my favorite non-profit organizations, Operation Underground Railroad. Much like the Underground Railroad of the Civil War, OUR helps rescue slaves. Yes you heard me right, slavery is alive and well and organizations like OUR are trying to put an end to it, but specifically trying to stop sex slavery of children. These poor little children get stolen and rarely do they get found or rescued. OUR is trying to turn that around. So if you want to get involved, visit ourrescue.org today.

Lastly, please give us a rating and a review and follow us wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on our social media @thehardthingpodcast. You’ll get even more content on our socials.

Now let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Don’t care about entrepreneurship, well wait just a minute. Entrepreneurship literally means to bring out something from within. It’s the idea of constantly making things better or taking ownership of your situation. If you don’t own a business or a side hustle, you can still use entrepreneurial skills in your job to make yourself a better employee. Not sure if you buy into what I’m saying? Keep listening and it will make sense.

Here are entrepreneurial skills that everyone should develop (including me)

1. Resourcefulness: This is the ability to make things work with less than optimal resources or connections. It’s being able to Macgyver yourself out of any situation. As an entrepreneur this means doing things cheaply, or bootstrapped and saving yourself extra expenses. As an employee this means saving your company money, therefore making yourself more useful to the company. As a parent this means thinking up interesting and creative ways to teach, entertain and lead your children. It’s the ability to see how things fit together that don’t traditionally fit together.
2. Win Win Solutions: You need to learn how to create reciprocal incentives. Basically find ways to make what you want and what someone else wants the same thing so you both work toward it willingly and it benefits both people. Two examples of this. In talking with Ty, before he was the cohost of this show, he’d mentioned he wanted to do something kind of like a podcast. So we talked and he eventually came onto the show. That benefitted both he and I. Another example. I recently connected with another friend who just graduated in graphic design and is wanting to build his portfolio. When I say connected. After talking we both decided that he would help me with some graphic design for the podcast in order for him to build his portfolio. I’m looking forward to when he let’s me promote him so I can return the favor. Reciprocal incentives.
3. Targeting: You need to get crystal clear about who you are talking to, and more importantly, who you aren’t talking to. Basically, you need to understand where you loyalties are. Are you loyal to your customers? Employees? Have you structured your business so they are one and the same? Understand what group is the most important group for you and do everything in your power to cater to their interests. Then,...