The Epidemic That is Killing One Business at a Time

“When does the Fear end?” I asked my coach Suzanne.

Wide eyes stared back at me in disbelief that I had asked that question.

“Never, Odette!” she replied in a high-pitched voice.

I too was shocked when I heard that answer, because I thought once you hit a certain level, fear can’t touch you anymore.

“With each level of business there is always a new level of fear. It’s how you respond to the fear that separates the winners and the losers.”

So what does your fear do to you? Does it motivate you? Or do you cower in the  corner with your arms blocking your head, like shielding blows from an attacker?

Let’s face it, life never stops. People get sick, people die. Families break up, families have dysfunction. Bills still need to get paid and food still needs to be put on the table.

As humans we have the ‘flight or fight’ syndrome.

As Serious Entrepreneurs, we only have the Fight.

In my new book; “Paralyzed: Getting Past the Excuses of Why You Aren’t Successful”, I talk about The Business Ownership Epidemic.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

“There is an epidemic out there and it’s killing many would-be entrepreneurs one sales call at a time. With the dawn of the Internet the disease is spreading at an alarming rate in the comfort of our so-called home offices. The epidemic is called Business Ownership.

According to the wisest of the wise, the fortune cookie, the hardest part of anything is the beginning. The hardest part for so many is the beginning…of each day.

The economy, your bank account, your spouse, your partner, your job, your need for a job, your age, the weather, the time of year, how you feel, how you don’t feel, your knowledge or a lack of skills, your kids…and the list goes on and on …are all just a bunch of BS excuses for why you are stuck and miserable in a life you hate. At the end of the day, sleep is the rest button for all excuses and justifications of why you didn’t do what you said you were going to do to knock it out of the park.

Here’s what I know without a shadow of doubt: you want to be successful in business so bad but something is stopping you. That something is YOU.”

So how do we stop the epidemic that is killing so many dreams?

We master the sales conversation. We kill our fears.

Both of them.

1. Selling YOU to YOU.
Hardest sales pitch you will ever do. It is a daily pitch, sometimes hourly.

2. Selling YOU to the marketplace.
You can not out perform in the market until you out perform your mind.

It pains me to hear people get so excited about their business one minute, only to be making excuses that complete stop their business the next.

“Family emergency!”
“My kids need me!”
“My husband says no!”
“I don’t have any money!”
“It’s not the right time!”

People, these are temporary issues not business-stopping issues.  Yes your husband might be skeptical. But do you blame him?

He hasn’t seen any action (the business kind) and doubts that ‘this is the big one.’ You have to prove it.

Proving it means doing it. Not starting-and-stopping-it-kind-of-doing-it.