Recently I saw a prospect who said ‘no’ to working with me post an update on his Linkedin profile with his new job title-Employee. This is the 5th I’ve seen in the last year. There’s nothing wrong with having a job. Lots of people are happy and productive human beings serving a lot of people in their chosen vocation. However, when a job is what you go get because you’ve failed at the dream of entrepreneurship, that’s when I’m sad. Because Entrepreneurship was my dream when I was working for others for 2 whole decades. I don’t want you to ever lose that dream. So here’s what I know every time I see an entrepreneur give up and get a job:

They Didn’t Want It Badly Enough

After 20 years of working for someone else, I know first hand how hard it was for me to break free from the so-called “Golden Handcuffs”. Once I did break free and became an entrepreneur, I lay awake many nights thinking of how to get new clients, how to pay my expensive coach and how to just make myself get up and keep going each and every morning. I wanted it badly enough that I put up with the nightmares and the sleepless nights. I put up with the humiliation of asking my family to borrow money. I put up with a lot of things because I wanted very badly to succeed as an Entrepreneur and I did many things that were very uncomfortable for me to do. As an Entrepreneur, you have to want it badly enough because to be successful, you have to do new and different things. You have to grow and stretch.

They Said “No” to Help They Needed

As I mentioned, I only saw 5 prospects who said ‘no’ to working with me go and get jobs. I’m guessing countless others are out there, unemployed, underemployed or worse, employed securely once again with someone else who is taking their dreams away from them. When entrepreneurs know they need help, and when that help shows and they still say ‘no, thanks’ then it’s almost a certainty that they will have to go back and get a job. Problems don’t fix themselves. Time doesn’t fix problems. Above all, you can’t fix the problems that you’ve created with the same mindset that created them.

They Refused to Invest In The Strategy of Their Business

I’ve seen plenty of former entrepreneurs go out with a bang of debts accumulated on spending money on everything BUT The Strategy of Their Business. Before knowing who is their ideal client and what is their specialty that differentiates them from the rest of the world, they hire people to help them implement a website, social media, SEO, videos, blogs, you name it. The list goes on. Other former entrepreneurs hire coaches who help them with mindset, systems, money or public speaking without knowing WHO they serve and WHAT their expertise is in. Without the basic foundation, the most elaborately and expensively designed home will collapse. What’s different about a business?

They Always Kept the Idea of a Job as a Backup Plan

Ever heard of ‘burning your ships’? Well it refers to the Spanish explorer Cortez who upon discovering the city of Veracruz, burned his entire fleet so that his men would have no way to get back on them and go home. When you refuse to burn your ships (the idea of a job) you are never that invested in making the businesses a success. You have options, you spend your time thinking about those rather than about your company. Anytime I speak to a prospect and ask them what they’d do if the business didn’t pan out and they say “I’d simply and quickly get another job, it wouldn’t be so bad actually”, I quickly and quietly move on. They are not someone I can help.

They Just Got  Too Scared

Fear rules everything we do. It’s the way we’re conditioned for survival. I get that. Totally. But when you let it stop you from doing the things you need to do to have a business like: calling strangers, investing in expensive coaches, going on tv, public speaking, networking with hundreds of people, travelling and doing business in new and strange cities or countries, asking for a lot of money from people, selling yourself, exposing your vulnerabilities to your audience..then unfortunately you might just have to and get yourself a job.
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