Many designers dream of one day building their own company. But transitioning from a corporate role to entrepreneurship requires more than just ambition—it demands preparation. While there are countless skills you could work on, they ultimately roll up into three main categories: discipline, people skills, and big-picture thinking.
The good news? You can practice all of these while you're still an employee. Here’s how.
1. Discipline: The Foundation of Success
Discipline might be the hardest skill to master, especially if you're someone who thrives on last-minute creativity or deadlines imposed by others. As an employee, it’s easy to rely on organizational structures to enforce discipline. But when you’re running your own company, all those structures must come from you.
Start small. Build your discipline muscle using tools like B.J. Fogg's Tiny Habits. This isn’t just about sticking to schedules—it’s about aligning with your key principles, staying focused on objectives, and resisting distractions that don’t move the needle.
Discipline also extends to maintaining good health and hygiene, managing your time effectively, and prioritizing tasks ruthlessly. These are the habits that, when ingrained early, will set the foundation for leading a company with clarity and focus.
2. People Skills: The Art of Collaboration and Influence
As an entrepreneur, your success will hinge on your ability to work through others—whether that's negotiating deals, inspiring a team, or winning over investors.
Start honing your people skills now. Learn negotiation strategies (Stuart Diamond’s Getting More is an excellent resource) and practice storytelling and presentation skills to align others with your vision. In your current role, seek out opportunities to actively listen, ask critical questions, and lead interviews or hiring efforts.
Don’t overlook the importance of building resilience through rejection. Selling ideas—and sometimes hearing "no"—is part of the entrepreneurial journey, and developing a thick skin now will serve you well later. Lastly, if your communication isn’t clear and reliable, fix that immediately. Whether it’s verbal or written, clarity is key—tools like Grammarly can help, but ultimately, consistent practice is your best bet.
3. Big-Picture Thinking: Seeing the Forest, Not Just the Trees
Big-picture thinking is the heart of entrepreneurship. It’s about focusing on your company's mission and aligning every decision—creative, financial, and operational—with your goals.
This doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity, but it does mean prioritizing user needs above aesthetics. As a designer, it’s tempting to focus on visual appeal, but as a founder, functionality and value must take precedence unless design is your sole differentiator in the market.
In your current role, start practicing principled thinking. Get comfortable with setting OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and triaging decisions based on their impact. This involves choosing your words carefully, allocating resources wisely, and consistently seeking opportunities that bring you closer to your long-term goals.
Bonus Skill: Comfort with Chaos
No matter how prepared you are, entrepreneurship is chaotic. Things will go wrong. Plans will change. But the ability to stay grounded in the midst of that chaos is what separates successful founders from the rest.
Start Practicing Today
You don’t have to wait until you start your own company to develop these skills. In fact, the more you practice discipline, people skills, and big-picture thinking now, the smoother your transition will be later.
Are you a designer dreaming of entrepreneurship? Let me know what skills you’re working on—or where you feel stuck—in the comments below. Let’s learn from each other!
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