As a business owner or a creative person, your biggest barricade to success isn’t in your external world, your world without. It’s your internal world, your world within, the programs that run in the recesses of your mind without your awareness.
Take, for example, the “internal thermostat problem” that explains why a stupid amount of Americans (between 30 and 50 percent) live paycheck to paycheck. If internally you believe that you’re unworthy of wealth, then your actions will deprive you of the very wealth you’re making.
Or try on this example for size: Cults.
When you think about how people get duped into cult life, you imagine yourself in that situation, and come to the conclusion that they must be as dumb as a bag of rocks. But do dumb people even join cults? Would a cult even appeal to someone with a sub-80 IQ?
I doubt it.
It’s usually the smart folk (or at least the midwits) who get duped by a charismatic cult leader. Why? Well, it’s an unaddressed internal problem. This internal problem led them to being receptive of the idea—then, since they’re smart, they can explain away their emotional (internal) decision with pure logic, convince themselves that drinking the Kool-Aid is good, and, in many cases, full heartedly believing in the cult’s mission and giving themselves such a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome that they could be grilled about their beliefs while connected to a lie detector test and completely fool the test.
They didn’t fool the test. They fooled themselves.
Anyway, since this internal battle is the most important battle of your life, your business, and your very legacy, I figured I’d share a few weird ways that you might be getting in your own way.
I have three examples.
Onward:
1. Your superpowers become a hindrance
I’ve never made this connection until now, but:
A common trope in stories is for the hero and the villains to have the same exact (or very similar) skill set. You can see this perhaps the best in the world of superheroes and superhero movies. But it applies elsewhere too. In fact, it’s a powerful story trope because of the emotional connection any reader can have with it. Emotional connections are always abstract. This is what makes your favorite song your favorite song. You have a completely unique relationship to that song and its meaning than the writer did as well as another person who says your favorite song is also their favorite song.
Anyway, why is the hero and villain sharing skill sets and powers (and shortcomings) so emotionally captivating?
Because it’s a story of the human condition as old as time. A strength overexposed becomes a weakness. Your superpower in one thing can be a poison dart in another thing.
For example, I’m a solution-oriented person by nature. Being able to clearly see and solve problems is one of my superpowers. But in the context of relationships, this superpower quickly becomes a weakness.
2. What worked to get you to point A won’t work to get you to point B
This one is related to the previous point. And this is especially true in the internal world of every entrepreneur.
Starting a business is a risky decision. You aren’t promised a paycheck. And when you nurture it daily and watch it blossom, it’s like looking at your own kid—if you produced your kid asexually.
In the beginning stages of building a business, you have to hustle. You have to outwork your friends and family and competitors. You have to invest more of your time in the business because if you don’t, well, you won’t have a business.
But as your business blossoms and matures, it requires a different version of you. No longer do you have to hustle for every penny. Instead, you have to hustle for Benjamins.
And this hustle ain’t the same hustle. The same hustle leads to burnout and worse. This new hustle ain’t actually a hustle at all but a step into leadership. Into actually being the CEO of your business instead of playing make-believe like you had to do to get your business up and running.
And yet, in times where we’re stuck, we revert to old patterns. When business suffers, you roll up your sleeves and go back to the work that got you to where you are today—only to be clobbered upside the head by the reality of your new situation: What worked to get you to point A won’t work to get you to point B.
3. Self-sabotage disguised as growth
This one, again, relates to the last point. Each of these points are building upon each other in a way I didn’t expect them to when I was planning this email.
Thinking what got you to point A will get you to point B is, quite literally, self-sabotage disguised by growth.
And, once again, this problem stems from your internal world.
Let’s continue the business example I’ve set up:
A sneaky form of self-sabotage is unconsciously making things harder and creating obstacles to prove to yourself that you can overcome them. In the context of a business stuck at point A desperate to get to point B, this is where the newly created CEO doesn't feel comfortable in his role as such. And so, he goes out of his way to start fires in every facet of his business, with each department he can get his mangled hands onto. He causes problems to prove to himself that he’s worthy of being a CEO.
Solving problems allows him to justify his existence in the company. But a CEO isn’t supposed to exist in the company, he’s supposed to work on the company.
Worst yet is that most are blind to this mental software they downloaded that says “solving problems = worthiness.”
It can even look like growth.
But it’s not growth. Not only does it halt progress (which comes with a massive opportunity cost), but it can also plant the seeds of destruction to your business.
One of my clients recently made this mistake. He’s been adamant about creating a new website for some reason—despite the last one threatening his very business because it did not work and we had to flip the switch to turn back on the old site.
Well, he just recently updated his entire website again. This time, he at least has more reason to do so—the new website is a part of a new fulfillment service, which, in theory, can lead to an overall improved general experience for our customers.
But
every.
single.
link.
has.
changed.
Most product links have a 301 redirect, so if someone clicks the old link, they’ll still get to the desired page; it'll just take longer.
And so now I have to go through hundreds of emails and automations that were already set up and working properly and generating revenue and update the links or the triggers or who knows what else.
Worst part?
When I’m doing rudimentary work like this, I can’t focus on becoming a better, more persuasive writer so our sales increase.
That’s a long way of saying this is the bad news.
The good news?
Each of these sneaky ways of getting in your own way have a common stem:
Fear.
Fear Is The Mind-Killer as the Bene Gesserits would say.
The John Gesserit would add:
It’s also the business-killer. (But what even is the business besides a real life example of the mind?)
The even better news?
When you work with someone aware to how the world within can suffocate your world without, and who also knows a thing or two about writing and sending persuasive, revenue-generating emails, then, well, the road to growth ain’t as hard or as scary as you might be making it—unconsciously or not.
Take the first step towards eliminating your fear by hitting reply.
John
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