Self Employed or Bust

Self-imposed Obstacles to Success for the Self-Employed

August 12, 2008 – 7:37 pm

There are often a variety of wealth-depriving obstacles to overcome on the journey to success. Some are beyond our control and must be prepared for in advance. A savvy investor, for example, will plan for downturns in the economy to limit or entirely eliminate losses. But the most frustrating barriers to success in my opinion are those self-imposed walls that result in failure to launch.

Assuming we can agree that there are obstacles we all have to overcome if we hope to make it into a wealthier, happier world, I decided to run through a list of what I feel is most likely to hold us (any of us) back.

1. Self-doubt. How many of you don’t have a head for numbers or don’t know if you could do better than you’re doing now? If we were meant to be rich, we’d be there already, right? Clearly we don’t have the required skills, right? Wrong on all counts. For every element required to be wealthy, there’s something you can learn or somebody you can hire. Do you really believe Donald Trump or Bill Gates do their own taxes? Recognize that, while you will have to build some new skills, there’s a world full of people out there willing to help for just a small slice of the pie you’re building in return and they’ll have a vested interest in your success.
2. Fear of Failing. Investing so much of yourself into something does come with the frightening prospect of falling flat on your face. But is that really so bad? My strategy from the start has been to accept the potential for failure and decide up front that I will embrace it when/if it happens. Recognize failure as a good thing. Accept it as a learning opportunity. Invest yourself in the process of becoming self employed or independently wealthy, NOT in the particular vehicles you choose to get you there. If the method falls apart on you and fails, that’s ok… the dream and ambition of financial freedom is still very much viable. Just be sure you learn from your mistakes or you’ll be doomed to repeat them.
3. It takes money to make money. Maybe, maybe not. But not necessarily YOUR money. If you’re like me, you probably don’t have a great deal in the way of spare capital to use in starting your particular business idea. If you let that stop you then you’ll always find an excuse to give up. Start small. Or, start big and seek investors. If you are committed to your objective then you should be equally committed to finding ways to make it work.
4. Debt. If you are already so deep in debt that you can’t begin to find your way out then you aren’t ready yet. That doesn’t mean you’ll never be ready, it just means prioritizing one hurdle before you jump another. My next few posts will focus heavily on this and I strongly suggest you read them starting with 1 Proven Strategy to Ensure You’ll Never Be Rich.
5. Discouraging influences. Your father thinks you’ll never amount to anything. Your sister thinks you’re an idiot full of dumb ideas. Your mother smiles encouragingly but her eyes tell you she doubts you’ll make anything of your fancy widget idea. At least she offers you some ice cream to dull the insult. Before you listen to anything anybody else has to say, consider the source. Are any of them independently wealthy? Are any of them successfully self employed? Have any of them pursued their challenging dreams and succeeded? Never let anybody else deprive you of your dreams. Listen to mentors. Listen to industry experts. Do your own research. At the end of the day, after thoroughly educating yourself, make your own decision on whether or not your idea was a good one.
6. Knowledge. Nobody said this would be easy and if you already knew everything you needed to know to succeed, you’d be busy running your business rather than reading this list. Of all the hurdles out there, this is the easiest to overcome. Everything you need is out there. Visit the library, search the web, read the business section of the newspaper to expand your financial vocabulary. Invest in yourself and take some classes. Attend seminars and get to know experts on whose knowledge you can later draw. If you can’t be bothered to put in the time to prepare yourself for financial independence then it’s a sure thing you won’t remain financially independent for long even if you do succeed.
7. Burnout. For most of us, the path to self employment and financial freedom is going to be measured in years. Some of you might have a brilliant idea that will sell you into freedom tomorrow, but you’ll be the exception rather than the rule. Recognize early on that this is journey, not a jog around the block, and commit to the task from the start. When you find yourself burning out, take a weekend off. Review your business plan. Review your goals. Review your motivation and remember the payout you hope to achieve. Then get your nose back to the grindstone and keep at it. Nobody said this would be easy. But if it wasn’t worth it in the first place, you wouldn’t have even started.
8. Lack of ideas. Yes, you desperately want to quit your day job and finance your own life as a free and self employed boss of your own empire. Yes, you want to be filthy stinking rich. But where to start? What to do? How? The frustrating part for both of us is that I can’t give you a laundry list of ideas today and set you off on your journey. I just don’t have that many to give yet and that’s not the point of this blog. The point of this blog is to try many things out over time and let you know how things went, if it was worth it and how successful (or not) I am. In time, there will be dozens of ideas to try. But not yet. Keep coming back as I learn and maybe I’ll have stumbled across something you’d like to try. In the meantime, read. Read every book on investing, wealth building and business you can get your hands on. It’s what I’m doing and I’m growing for it. Ideas are springing up. You’ll experience much the same.
9. Lack of Time. You’re preaching to the choir, buddy. I’m right there with you. You only have to read my first post – Self Employed or Bust – to see that my day job eats up way more than its fair share of my week. Then there’s time with the wife, walks with the dogs, family time, house work and chores, ambitions to move to a new home, and on and on. Time is the toughest of the bunch to manage. But manage it, you must. If you don’t make or find the time to invest in yourself and your dreams, you’ll never get them off the ground. Engage your husband or wife in your dreams. Make them a team member so they are more sympathetic when you fall down on the chores because you’re writing content for your blog, researching material for your book or meeting with your business strategy team. Beg, borrow or steal the time to get your dream moving and keep it moving no matter what it takes.
10. Lack of skills. Good news. That’s mostly a mental thing. Look at the myriad ways people make money these days. Some idiot films himself jabbing himself with fish hooks and there’s an audience willing to throw gobs of money at him for it (no I’m not recommending you do the same). The point is that you probably have more marketable skills than you give yourself credit for and what you lack in existing skill can be learned over time. My hope is to become a skilled entrepreneur and a sophisticated investor in many different areas. I don’t have the required skills today but I will as this process moves on. If you commit to your objective and define your goals, you’ll learn what you need to learn in time.

Whatever your excuses, recognize them as just that… excuses. They are not legitimate reasons to keep you from success. They are simply obstacles to be overcome, one after another. Once you find some momentum and realize a little progress towards your goals, the progress you’ve made will further motivate you. You’ll look back and laugh at your corporate-slave friends who told you your ideas would never amount to anything. You’ll be embarrassed at how shy you were the first time you talked to your mentors about your ideas. You’ll flash a cocky grin and wave as you drive by in your Lexus at the banker who didn’t have enough faith in your vision to fund your venture. It will all have been worth it in the end.

Stumble it!