I am often contacted by people who have so little faith in their business, but also — so little faith in business in general. They want little hacks for how to make a little money for some temporary or one time need. They mention goals of ONE DAY leaving their jobs, ONE DAY going all in on their dreams, ONE DAY fully backing themselves.
I often wonder about the hesitancy to bank on self-employment… WHEN did a paycheck that someone else signs become MORE dependable than the one you sign yourself? Granted, I’ve been fully self-employed for two decades now, so it’s been a minute since I’ve had a paycheck or a boss. But I honestly don’t remember a time when I felt self-employment money was “insecure” or less stable.
Of course, I’ve always been a hustler.
I’ve ALWAYS had some side hustle going on,
some way to generate cash
that depended — fully — on me to
come up with something to sell,
SELL IT,
COLLEcT MONEY
and deliver whatever I was selling.
Also, I never did the whole “part time preneur” thing.
I quit my full time job and leaped into self-bossing
in one bell swoop. No safety net. No plan B. No room for error.
Side note: I often think that the reason people fail to make IMPRESSIVE money “on the side” is because they have that full time job keeping them comfy / cozy … they have that “safe” money keeping them in a comfort zone of commerce. Without it, my money’s on them DIGGING DEEP and doing what it takes to succeed. 
But even those who are aLL IN,
they’re supporting themselves and their families with their business,
those that are NOT entertaining a plan B…
sometimes they still make success so much harder than it has to be.
Essentially, they change NOTHING but their “JOB.”
They keep the same social circles.
They keep the same hours.
They keep the same beliefs.
They keep the same routine.
But the thing is, being an entrepreneur,
being a SUCCESSFUL entrepreneur
requires MORE than just a change in how you make money.
Being a successful entrepreneur is a CRASH COURSE in self-development and growth beyond ANYTHING you can imagine before you go all in.
It requires that your lifestyle become a certain “container” that INCUBATES success.
It requires more than a change in what you DO,
SUCCESS
the kind that is in absolute integrity,
the kind that doesn’t just bring you more money, entirely on your terms,
but also… the peace and calm and confidence that ONLY living out your core purpose can bring…
THAT kind of success
requires a change in who you ARE.
Successful entrepreneurs are up-leveling DAILY. In fact, it’s a foregone conclusion… they keep growing, keep developing, keep aligning with their core goals.
When you do this, success is a NATURAL OUTCOME of you being you. BUT if you do NOT view your LIFE as a container for success, if you focus ONLY on the mechanics of success, focusing only on your TO DOs and IGNORING the “to BECOMEs,” success DOES feel hard.
If the LATTER is your approach to success,
You will ALWAYS feel behind,
always feel ALMOST there, ALMOST ready…
because you’re trying to SQUEEZE entrepreneurship into the old paradigm of you…. trying to DO entrepreneurship while BEING the same person who was content punching a time clock and collecting a paycheck.
The two are just incompatible.
Entrepreneurship is MORE than a title,
it’s a LIFESTYLE,
an IDENTITY,
a WAY of LIFE.
Side note: This is WHY I built Women Who WOW to be a lifestyle, a container, a PLACE… where women entrepreneurs can come DAILY to plug in, to dig deep, and to DAILY BECOME the women for whom success is a natural byproduct of their life. It matters. The approach MATTERs. It’s everything really. (Message me for details about joining. HUGE bonus going on right now.)
This is why women entrepreneurs in general struggle with “losing friends” or even MARRIAGES as they reach new levels of success. Because THEY are changing. THEY are becoming new creatures. THEY are becoming MORE of themselves.
They’re more deliberate about how and where and with whom they spend their time. They bore easily of gossip or small talk. They’re less tolerant of people disrespecting them, ignoring their boundaries or taking them for granted.
And they BELIEVE in themselves at a new level.
THIS faith is required for wild success.
And they have it in spades.
Their old circles may not even recognize them. They may RESENT them for ‘changing’ or for getting “too busy.”
But while their POTENTIAL is being stretched,
so too is their wisdom.
They begin to see that they’re not “aligning” to some external standard, they’re simply becoming MORE and more of themselves.
in THIS container,
going all in,
feeling confident in the paychecks you sign yourself,
is a foregone conclusion.
It’s the only thing we CAN do.
So if you want SUCCESS to come easier, know this: Success isn’t something you DO, it is something you BECOME.
THIS makes all the difference.
