Being an entrepreneur is a mindset. You have to see things as opportunities all the time. I like to do intervi... — Soledad O'Brien

Being an entrepreneur is a mindset. You have to see things as opportunities all the time. I like to do interviews. I like to push people on certain topics. I like to dig into the stories where there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer.

Author: Soledad O'Brien

Insight: The entrepreneurial mindset isn't really about starting a business—it's about how you move through the world. It's noticing when something frustrates you and thinking "what if I could fix that?" instead of just accepting it. It's asking better questions in conversations instead of settling for surface-level answers. Most people encounter the same problems and possibilities as entrepreneurs do, but they see obstacles where entrepreneurs see leverage points. What's interesting is that this approach applies far beyond business. A parent might ask themselves what opportunities exist in their kid's struggle with reading. A person in a job they're bored with might look for the interesting angles nobody else is investigating. It's about being curious enough to dig into why things work the way they do, rather than taking them at face value. The real skill O'Brien points to—interviewing, pushing, sitting with complexity—these are tools for understanding anything more deeply. The catch is that not every opportunity needs to be seized. The mindset isn't about being relentlessly optimistic or saying yes to everything. It's about developing the habit of asking good questions and actually listening to the messy, complicated answers. That alone changes what you notice and what you're capable of doing with what you find.