If there is a theme that is common among ThinkTalk guests it is attitude and mindset. To be a successful individual you have to have a certain frame of mind; to overcome challenges; to make yourself standout in a competitive industry; to create and innovate.

Monica O'Brien of Twenty Set captures this entrepreneurial mindset in a recent post. To succeed as an entrepreneur and start your own company, you need to posses certain qualities.

Overcoming adversity, handling risk, and in general being a grown up and making your dreams come true (even when everyone thinks your dreams are crap and you should just get a “real” job). It doesn’t matter if you are in the idea stage, the execution stage, or the growth stage. If you are working on entrepreneurship goals, you can be an entrepreneur. You are an entrepreneur. You don’t have to make it before you start. You don’t have to run the marathon before you’ve run a mile.

Speaking of the idea stage of entrepreneurship, Ryan Healy at Employee Evolution thinks that it isn't about one big idea, you need to have a lot of little ideas to succeed. Ryan uses a number of real world examples, Facebook, Twitter, YCombinator and his own startup, Brazen Careerist.

Over the past two years since starting Brazen Careerist I’ve realized this first hand. When Penelope and I first discussed starting a company, we had no idea what we were going to do. We knew the market we wanted go into, and we knew that we wanted to help people with their careers, but that’s about it. No crazy ideas to change the world. Just a desire to do something great

Since then, we’ve all had a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas, and the whole team has worked their tails off to make this whole thing come to life. And finally after a couple of years, we have a pretty good idea of what our business is. All it took was not being able to pay rent occasionally, showering and living at the office some days, working when we were supposed to be sleeping, and cheering our one-man development team as he coded until 6 am.

There is a common theme in both of these posts. Entrepreneurship is about long term thinking. You may have an initial great idea. Well that's a great start. But it's not the end of the line. A successful entrepreneur will keep thinking, keep developing ideas and be prepared to adapt and change.

On to the Links ...

Keppie Careers Discusses Interview Answer Length: Well, usually the problem is rambling on and on. But too short can be a problem, too. But here's a good tip: "Have you ever listened to a professional storyteller? Usually, the story itself will be longer than the typical “listening span” we naturally have. However, the forward motion of the story, the storyteller’s investment in the tale and the intriguing details all combine to propel listeners forward. They stay with the story for a pretty simple reason – they want to KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!"

Cheezhead Wants To Know If You Are Being Productive: The gist: Essentially, the recession and fear of losing their jobs is making workers unproductive. There's also a rather large section about how depression decreases work productivity. I've been having a lot of convos about depression lately, so rather than expound here, jump over the Cheezhead and read on.

TechRepublic's 10 Things Has Some Great Ideas: Executive and leadership coach John McKee shares 10 great ideas from 5 bosses he has had in his 30 year career. Among them, "nuke the blackberry when at home."

CareerHub Wants To Know Why She Should Hire You: It's a competitive market. Why should someone hire you? "[A]n okay, lukewarm, mediocre response, it simply isn't helpful, valuable, and in no way, does it make you rock, shine, stand out, or memorable. If you are an Idol fan, you know that Simon doesn't hesitate to tell Idol wanna-a-be's that they are "memorable" or "forgettable." And if you're a job contestant in today's highly competitive market, employers don't have the time to figure you out, distill your assets, and / or your value on their time, their dime. You either make yourself memorable from the get-go, or you don't."