Watch This! Unlimited Leads at a Click of a Button.. Find out More

The Entrepreneur & Business Owner’s Worst Enemy

Show me an entrepreneur or business owner that doesn’t have to overcome roadblocks. If you have an example, chances are that they aren’t really successful. It’s a fact of life for those of us that choose this path to travel on and there’s no escaping that.

Today we’re going to talk about motivation, roadblocks, head trash, and how to persevere.

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, your worst enemy is YOU!

Doubting Yourself Leads to Self Defeat

One of the biggest examples of you being your own worst enemy is the amount of self doubt you face. You face it because of the way our society has become. Being skeptical is fine, I’m a skeptic but doubting yourself is different than just being skeptical.

Before diving in any further, I have to give a shout out to Andrea from Italy who gave me the idea of this topic, also the same person I mentioned in a previous blog post about his insane conversion with video for lead generation.

He was telling me about elephants that are domesticated and used in circuses, and other acts for entertainment. While I’m against that, it brought up a very good point.

He mentioned how when training these elephants, they have them at a very early age tied to a tree with a strong rope. The elephant gets pissed, trying to break free from the rope and the tree. They get angry, they try as hard as they can but they’re still stuck, they never succeed.

Eventually the young elephant realizes the rope is holding them back, it’s the reason why they can’t break free. They understand why, and can begin being domesticated, or trained. Knowing it can’t break free, breaks the elephant.

How often do we get held down, or trapped and unable to break free? Analysis paralysis, where we feel like we need to continue researching or keep seeking education in our field before actually doing something with the knowledge we acquired? How often do we make excuses for why we can’t do what we want to accomplish? How often is society programming us to believe that you need a certain level of education or come from a certain type of family in order to be wealthy or succeed in life?

These are all common things that hold people back. I hear it all the time from people who have bought my Ultimate Blueprint to Start a Web Agency. They’re not sure they’re ready yet to help a business owner with their website or SEO, or social media, etc. not realizing that you can get started simply by knowing more about whatever you’re offering than the business owner does.

Another common problem people think they have is that they don’t have a portfolio. I already talked about how to get clients without a portfolio but they see this as a struggle, a roadblock, a start to the bottomless pit of self doubt. However, I see it as a strength, a selling point. What better selling point is there for a beginner than to talk to businesses that need your help but don’t want to pay top dollar prices? You can get into the business by offering an introductory special on your services in order to build up your portfolio.

Going back to the elephant story, and how the elephant was broken… later on in life the elephant grows. It becomes huge, heavy, and strong. The trainers STILL use a rope but it’s a small, thin rope that the elephant could easily break.

An elephant can weigh up to 14,000 pounds. Do you think a rope can still keep them tied down, unable to break free?

The elephant is still unable to break free, but not due to a lack of strength. It was taught to believe that it can’t break free from that rope. It believes that now even though they have a massive amount of strength that they can’t go anywhere, that they’re still stuck and defeated.

Obviously, if that elephant were angry enough, or had some sort of change in mindset, it could realize the incredible power it has.

What about you? How many products do you have to buy? Of course I want you to keep reading mine, but how many blogs do you have to read before you consider that you have enough knowledge in order to move forward?

Chances are if you’ve been at this whole business thing, or being an entrepreneur thing, you’re ready to move forward but you still believe you’re stuck. You keep on thinking of excuses to why you can’t have what you want, because of the self limiting beliefs you’ve grown attached to.

What’s your rope that’s tying you down, stopping you from moving forward?

It’s time to take a step and break free.

Dealing With The Fear of Failure

Another common roadblock is the fear of failure.

Fears are stories we tell ourselves

Failure is a necessity when you’re on the road to success. If you don’t fail, you never achieve success. What a lot of people don’t realize is that you have different levels of education. I’m not talking about grade school, high school, and university education, I’m talking about the difference in education between theory, and experience.

When you learn something in theory, it’s basically book smarts. You want to read about SEO, or sales, and it may sound really good in theory but your actual experience could be non existent. Some of the best education I have received came from applying the knowledge of “theory” in a real life situation and having a living, real life experience of what happens.

I’ve learned more from failure than I have learned from success. A motto I like to live by, is fail fast. I don’t see failure as a bad thing, I see it as a learning experience and getting one step closer to the end goal. If I setup a campaign for lead generation and it fails, I want it to fail as fast as possible. That way, I can minimize the loss and also invest in a different campaign that is much more profitable.

I also like to refer to different things I’ve failed at, as battle scars. Be proud of your battle scars, it’s how you end up being better. The project management webinar I did about a month and a half ago is a great example of the knowledge I acquired from failure.

Failure, is progress.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. ~Buddha

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from living life the way you think you should.

The Fear of Success, More Serious Than Most Think

It sounds silly doesn’t it? The fear of success? It’s actually a pretty common fear. People fear success because they’re afraid of what success will do to them, their family, and their future. They’re worried about success destroying them.

What I believe is at play here, is another example of society placing a rope around us trying to hold us back. We’re taught that great sacrifices must be made if we ever want to be successful, we’re taught that you have to trade something in, in order to get something back. You have to give up your hopes and dreams and get a “real job”, that’s what society tells you.

We’re taught early on that success isn’t likely to happen the way we thought it would.

Another common cause for people to fear success is the fact that they aren’t used to success, and are afraid of change. Kind of goes back to the whole line of thinking that success with destroy them or affect their family. You see it in Hollywood, in the movies or on TV how the “successful” people are always away from their family or are unhappy with their life.

fearThe American dream of going to college, getting a job, buying a house, staying with the same company until retirement, is over. Think you’re going to be able to live off of social security? I’m not sure social security will be around much longer. Government may not be here to bail you out. There are people finishing college and still stuck in minimum wage jobs.

The American dream is not what it used to be. You have to take action and take control of yourself, your actions, and your beliefs.

The fear of failure, fear of success, or self limiting beliefs shouldn’t hold you back. Instead of having those fears, you should have the fear of having those fears and take a step in the right direction.

Before We End This

What is it that is really stopping you from moving forward? Go ahead and grab a pen, a notepad and write it down.

After writing that down, also write down the activities you are putting off to further yourself and your business. Be specific.

Next, write down how these activities can help you if you complete them. Be specific.

And finally, write down what will happen to you if you DON’T take action on these things.

You will likely see that the fear of failure, success, or whatever else is holding you back really isn’t what you should be afraid of. The thing you should be afraid of most, is staying stationary, not moving forward.

Have you found value in this blog post? Leave me a comment below!

8 Comments

Add a Comment