The greatest compliment I’ve ever been given came from a friend who described me as “constantly curious.”
Eleanor Roosevelt famously understood the value of approaching the world from a sense of interest and wonder. She once said, “At a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.”
Curiosity means refusing to passively accept the world as it is. Instead, it requires active engagement with the world—a desire to know more, see more, understand more. If you’ve spent time with a young child, you know the fortitude required to face a seemingly unending series of questions beginning with “Why….” Research has shown that curiosity in infants and children serves several important functions, including motivating acquisition of knowledge, improving performance, and activating learning systems in the brain.
I’ve recognized that eagerness to go deeper and solve countless mysteries is also a key characteristic of the many successful entrepreneurs I’ve been privileged to work with. These are leaders and founders whose innovative approach to the world has consistently been sparked by asking questions, by tapping into a posture of curiosity instead of acceptance. Curiosity is the launch point for their drive to start a new business or product. Curiosity is also at the heart of many other necessary entrepreneurial traits, including adaptability, a willingness to experiment, innovative thinking, and persistence.
Entrepreneurs possess the ability to step into the unknown, to begin something new. I’ve helped to launch several healthcare ventures in my career, and each time, I’ve had to transition from achiever to beginner.
The Beginner’s Mind
In Zen Buddhism, one of the significant mindsets we try to cultivate is known as shoshin, a term that combines sho (first) and shin (mind). Shoshin translates as “beginner’s mind,” and the practice of shoshin is an invitation to foster that mindset, tapping into the curiosity that was so natural in us as children and bringing eagerness and openness into our endeavors. This means that we willingly step away from preconceived notions, from any “expert” pre-formed knowledge of a subject, and deliberately choose to see it with the fresh eyes of a beginner.
In the business world, this creates unique challenges. We want to build on past successes and progress to avoid repeating unnecessary steps. We’re naturally inclined to make decisions and solve problems using the information that we’ve gathered over months or years.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, describes this as “the danger that comes with expertise.” In Clear’s view, we increasingly are seeking out information that confirms what we already know; we’re hunting for validating information instead of new information.
Entrepreneurs need a certain amount of validating information, of course. They need it to show market size, customer intent, and demand. They need this data to refine their value proposition and optimize their use of resources. So, how do we harness this genuinely helpful foundational framing while still building a beginner’s mindset?
Cultivating a beginner’s mind doesn’t mean ignoring or overlooking validating information. Instead, it means acknowledging the parameters of that knowledge while holding space for what’s still not known. In other words, if the data you’ve been able to gather is providing a 90 percent level of certainty about the market for your product or business, it’s essential to focus on the 10 percent that’s still unknown.
A beginner’s mind for entrepreneurship starts with listening and observing. When the debates around me get fiery, I’ve had the greatest impact not by arguing my point with facts and figures, but by listening quietly and trying to learn by simply framing each interaction with “That’s interesting” instead of “That’s wrong.” It’s a fascinating paradox: the more you know, the more you need to pay close attention to identify gaps in your expertise and spot unconventional solutions.
The beauty of shoshin is that it frees you from preconceptions and taps into a deep eagerness to see things differently. Even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs, the right mindset begins with a beginner’s mind.