Running a successful business and becoming your own boss requires specific strategies. Yes, you need a great business plan, but it takes more than that. It requires certain psychological skills that will help you overcome challenges.

Do you ever notice how certain people seem to win at everything they do? Do they have some special “It” factor propelling them to crush goals that’d make mortals crumble? Well, here’s a little secret – the flames fueling these unstoppable winners mainly originate from the lessons they’ve learned over the years.

The good news is that anyone willing to work out can build these supreme mind muscles. Winning is about more than just being smart or working hard. It’s also about having the right mindset and mental skills. Let’s look at some of the core psychological skills that allow entrepreneurs and elite performers across domains to win…and keep on winning.

Psychological Lessons Learned from Poker Champions

You probably never associated winning at entrepreneurship with winning at the poker table. But believe it or not, many strategies allowing grandmasters to crush the most high-stakes poker games routinely work incredibly well in the entrepreneurial arena. 

Take the ability to “read” people and situations, for instance. Top poker pros can’t just rely on the two cards they’re holding—they have to scrutinize every bet, every facial tic, and every bead of sweat on their opponents to properly assess what they’re actually holding and how they perceive the current state of play. It’s a huge mental game of psychological warfare.

Similarly, the entrepreneurs who manage to swim rather than sink have sharpened their ability to read rooms accurately. They take the emotional temperature in meetings and sales calls, picking up on subtle cues about someone’s true motivations, hesitations, level of buy-in, and other cues. This separates those doomed to spin their wheels from those who consistently get others leaning in and signing on the dotted line.

Probability mathematics and risk-reward calculation represent another crucial cross-skill for poker players and business owners alike. Studies have shown that successful business managers can greatly benefit from this poker skill. You’ll never hear a player who knows how to win at poker say, “I got a nice feeling about this hand, so I’m going all in!” Instead, they meticulously calculate their probability of holding the most substantial hand through each round of betting and only risk big chips when the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. Likewise, prudent entrepreneurs have to develop this mental fortitude around risk assessment before ever putting serious capital, energies, or reputations in harm’s way.

Developing Emotional Intelligence

One of the most important psychological skills entrepreneurs must have is emotional intelligence. People with high emotional intelligence don’t just reign over their inner feeling states—they can tell what others are experiencing below the surface, too. The scholars who coined the term, Salovey and Mayer, define emotional intelligence as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.”

The most intelligent people in any room quickly realize they can supercharge results by showing a nuanced understanding of each person’s unique mindsets, insecurities, communication styles, and hidden motivational drivers. Without a doubt, emotionally-solid intelligence upends stalemates and resolves broken communication.

Balancing Belief and Adaptability

One of the trickiest psychological contrasts all great winners have to juggle is walking the tightrope between steadfast self-belief and unlimited adaptability. According to Harvard Business School, successful entrepreneurs possess strong self-confidence and adaptability skills.

On one side of the canyon, you’ve got to cultivate an almost delusional level of conviction in your vision, abilities, and prospective success. This unshakable confidence provides the fuel to charge through setbacks, naysayers, and plateaus that promptly demoralize those lacking resilience.

At the same time, however, those who rigidly cling to any single dogmatic belief system or plan get hopelessly outmaneuvered in our rapidly evolving world. To be a winner, you must remain endlessly curious. You must also challenge your long-held assumptions.

Developing Resilience in the Face of Setbacks

Many studies have proven that resilience is an important characteristic for entrepreneurs to possess. Cultivating resilience begins with mastering your explanatory style—that is, the stories you weave around terrible events when they occur. Those with fragile resilience tend to take setbacks as tragic indictments of their self-worth. These types of narratives breed helplessness.

The resilient, however, view problems through an empowering filter. They treat mistakes and short-term failures as unfortunate yet inevitable obstacles to learn from rather than self-esteem meat grinders.

Ultimately, having a winner’s psychology is about developing an understanding of oneself and others while maintaining the self-belief to charge through obstacles and the humility to evolve tactics in light of new information. It’s an ongoing journey of continual growth, but one that allows true visionaries to dream of success and manifest it through the sheer force of their mindset. The most resilient and psychologically sound entrepreneurs don’t just think differently – they create their own realities through the power of their mental skills and energies.