I talk to two kinds of entrepreneurs any given week.
The first kind I can help. The second, I cannot.
The first kind has a Want and you can’t shake him from it. He’s on a journey. He has an Inner Knowing that he is destined for something. He believes there’s a reason for everything that happens. And it’s all taking him closer to his dream.
Even when it feels like a punch in the gut.
But something is missing. He doesn’t fully know HOW to make his dream real.
Two things are always clear:
1. The Inner Knowing.
2. His very next step.
Despite these advantages, he often doesn’t know what he’ll do step-after-next. But he has faith that as he puts one foot in front of the other, that, too, will become clear.
His Inner Knowing provides him with courage the second guy doesn’t have. And so, as long as the next step is clear, he takes it. If the next step is clearly to invest in my help, he comes up with the money one way or another.
This same Inner Knowing leads him to implement everything we do together. Fast.
The work I give my clients can be hard work. If they didn’t have that Inner Knowing and expectation that they will succeed, they’d quit. But they don’t.
Instead, our first kind of entrepreneur, puts up with pain and stress. He expects it. It’s just the way the world is. He’s learned to see a disappointment, or a setback as nothing more than a signal. He searches the signal for it’s message and adjusts.
Pretty soon he experiences a life altering transformation.
Because nothing makes your life more fun than a simple system that brings you a consistent flow of amazing clients. Without needing to make cold calls or chase them. Or coddle and cut your prices.
Finally, he has money to travel. To take his kids to see Italy and France and his wife on a cruise to Alaska. To help out an elderly parent. To put a nephew through college. To support a community organization.
A life of options is the fruit of working hard smart.
Best part about it – all along he’s doing what he loves and leaving other happy people all around him.
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Then there’s the second kind.
He has a Wish. Many wishes, really. He wishes for all the things our first entrepreneur wants. The travel, the options, yadda, yadda, yadda…
But he doesn’t have that Inner Knowing that it will all work out.
For him, a setback is noise. Noise that keeps him from the ease he thinks should be his.
He looks at others and wonders why they have it easy. (Of course they don’t, but that doesn’t prevent him from assuming they do.)
He wonders what they know that he doesn’t. Will things ever change for him? (He’s waiting for things to change. He’s been waiting a while…)
His thoughts are consumed with survival, with paying the next bills, with just making it. With his head down, so focused on his very next step, he doesn’t allow himself to dream.
I met with such a person recently.
I’d asked him what he’s looking for. Where he wants to be in a year. And it wasn’t easy for him to answer.
We had to slog though all the things he thought he wanted just so we could unearth what he really wanted. The lights came on and for a very brief moment, he allowed himself to dream.
But then the elephant Fear put its heavy foot down once again. “What if it doesn’t work out that way. What if you fail. Again. Think of all the additional problems you’d have then. Why, you don’t know HOW you’d make that dream happen. Maybe Dov can help others, but you – you’re different. He doesn’t understand you.
“You don’t know how you’ll cross Bridge # 6 – so what business do you have starting on such a path and crossing the bridge in front of you! That would be irresponsible. It would be…”
Faced with the snorting, stomping elephant Fear this second type quickly revised his dreams.
Now he merely spoke of things he felt he could safely achieve.
All this right before my startled eyes!
“My friend, I can’t help you,” I said.
And indeed, I can’t help him or anyone like him.
Those first types need only know the next step and they take it. What will be later? God knows the future, not man. So this man begins with WHAT he wants, and then deals with HOW along the way. Small step by small step.
The second type places HOW first. And his dreams – if you can call them that – will never outpace what he feels confident he knows HOW to achieve today. This very moment.
And so, his decisions are motivated by what appears safe and secure. And in a futile attempt to appease his shackled human spirit he Wishes for a time when things will change.
Alas, a thousand Wishes don’t equal one burning Want.
—
Meeting this fellow was a truly sad experience for me. It’s like standing helplessly watching an accident about to happen. You could yell, but no one will hear you. The wreck is inevitable.
A life wasted trying to be safe instead of striving to be great is a wreck indeed.
My consolation is my amazing clients. People who come with a dream and the tenacity to make it happen.
People like Gabriel Madeiros, a customer and Oasis member who has a dream. He’s been working hard creating a future for himself. And there were times when I feared the high standards we demand around here would drive him to quit. But look what he posted in the Oasis forums yesterday:
“Hi Dov,
“This is HARD work. But for the first time I feel that I’m going in the right direction. Thank you!”
And indeed, he got it this time. I read through the latest version of his work and – he got it!
While the second type believe that clarity is something you wait around for, Gabriel is of the first type – he knows that clarity is something you work for. And then clarity works for you.
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Another client I’m very proud of is Kyle Hunt. Kyle is the leading marketing consultant serving the remodeling industry in the US. He was already earning six figures before we met. But he’d plateaued and recognized he needed some outside help.
When the elephant Fear snorts and stomps, Kyle Hunt climbs up on it’s back and shows it where to go.
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Do you have that Inner Knowing? Is it something some are born with and others are not? Can it be acquired? Nurtured?
What do you think? Let me know if a comment below.
Dov Gordon
PS – Kyle Hunt and I will be doing a live case study teleseminar on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 12 noon eastern. Put it on your calendar.
We’re going to show you how we took Kyle’s business through the Five Steps to A Consistent Flow of Customers. Kyle plans to talk freely about what it was like being plateaued, and how things have changed as a result of our work together.
If you’ve listened to any of my other work you know this will be insightful. We will keep things simple. And you will understand how to apply the 5 Steps process to your business.
All my subscribers will get the call-in details. If you get my emails, no need to do anything.
Are you new here?: Go get your free download of “The Five Steps to A Consistent Flow of Customers” and you’ll also get the call-in details when we sent them.
The case study with Kyle Hunt is a great opportunity to get a sneak peak at the high caliber people who hang around here. If you’re a Type 1 entrepreneur, you need a community of like minded people to support you on your journey. If you’re looking for such a place, let me know.
Dov Gordon
