Hi friend, I’ve been thinking –
There’s a reason Olympic athletes have coaches.
Men and women at the top of their game, going after their goals and dreams.
Some of them being crowned with a gold medal and given the title “world’s best.”
They’ve achieved the absolute top prize for their field.
And they didn’t do it alone. And my guess is they don’t ditch their coach as soon as they felt that gold medal around their neck.
But yet, us entrepreneurs have this crazy idea we should be doing things on our own.
We get this idea in our head that when we’re going after our goals, we should be making it happen on our own and without spending a dime.
We give it a fun name like bootstrapping and think it somehow makes us worthier. More deserving. More responsible.
“Oh hey, look at me – I’m finally doing it and I’m being so responsible by not spending any money and aren’t you impressed with how much I’m suffering to make this happen, it must mean that I’m really worthy.”
To claw and scratch our way through the trenches so in the end – one day – we can say we made it. And oh hey look, we did it all on our own.
Well when do we think one day is going to come?!
I rather one day be next week.
Not next year. Or 5 years. Or 10 years. Or maybe even never.
And what do we think our prize will be for making it on our own?
Extra money? Clients? Kudos? Golf claps?
Um. Does this sound crazy to anyone else?
No one – and I mean no one – looks at that athlete on top of the medal stand and thinks “well good for them but they had all that help so they don’t really deserve it.”
Crazy talk.
We don’t expect athletes, doctors, lawyers, accountants, or any other professional to do it on their own – without support, training, and guidance – so why in the hell do we expect that of ourselves?
It’s this weird form of suffering we put ourselves through as early entrepreneurs.
Only later to discover that all of the top coaches and gurus in our field are telling us how much help they’ve received and how important a coach was to their success.
But no. We must hitch up our big girl pants and wade through because we’re too freaked out about the investment to see how hard we’re making it on ourselves.
Se we…
- spend hours learning to do all sorts of technical junk that we’ll never need again.
- rewrite the same page on our website every week because we keep questioning if it’s good enough.
- watch the hours tick by while we search for the perfect graphic for our blog, the font that will really fit our branding, and the colors that will like OMG make the heavens part and clients flood our proverbial website gates.
- jump from project to project week by week chasing the money that is eluding us because we just can’t seem to figure out what in the world our audience needs.
- buy another course or program that ensures that this time we will discover all the magical answers that will finally get money into our bank account.
We suffer.
Because it wasn’t hard enough breaking out of the box society was trying to put us into.
Now we must suffer through building a business because it’s the responsible thing to do.
People already think we’re completely insane so let’s make sure we don’t do anything else that anyone else may think is nuts.
Nevermind all those things that are there to help us.
This is supposed to be hard right?! And if it isn’t, then when we do make it to the top then it won’t feel as exciting. Noteworthy. Joyous.
Stop the madness people!
I’ve done the courses. I’ve done the studying. I’ve watched YouTube videos until 2am trying to unlock the technical mystery of the day.
Then I realized what an idiot I was being and got a coach to work with one-on-one. At which point, I actually started to make money.
And I assure you that I wish it had come sooner.
With less headaches. Fewer meltdowns.
I prefer to be an entrepreneur with “crazy” ideas like I can actually change the world and make a difference. (So wild!)
Hop that fence and join me in my kind of crazy.
Step away from the crazy that’s telling you to do it all on on your own.
Because I’ve been both, seen both, and experienced both. And from where I sit (with a business, clients, money in the bank, and a coach) – crazy is not spending money on receiving support that is setting you up for your life’s work.
Your life’s work!
So yeah, I’ve been thinking.
Entrepreneurship is crazy enough. We don’t have to be crazy too.
