“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it’s not the answer.” —Jim Carrey
Cursed By Your Success?
A lot of the founders I work with ultimately hit a point they have been looking forward to for a long time.
After the business idea. After those first few employees, and customers.
After growth, funding, outside investors.
After they scale and build a “real” company with a real leadership team.
A CFO, a head of sales, a head of product, of customer service.
If the founder is following the playbook, they begin stepping away from the day to day aspects of the business. The team manages that while the founder holds the vision.
And at some point, the team even takes that over.
At that point, the founder faces a paradox. The point they have looked forward to is here.
They have more financial success than they ever thought they would have.
And they are essentially unnecessary. Bored even.
How did this happen?
Is It Boredom, Or Something Else?
It is true that sometimes the founder has fallen into malaise, or even depression.
But sometimes, not far beneath that bored exterior, is something different.
Sometimes, they are terrified.
Because the very identity that they have created and hung onto for so long is now being threatened.
The very thing they thought would “fix” them didn’t work.
I had a prominent role at my last employer. I spoke at events, I created content, I even did client-facing videos.
People at Fortune 100 companies knew my name and reached out to me.
When I was laid off in 2016, all that crumbled.
I no longer had any of that.
If I wasn’t that guy, who was I?
I knew at that point that my next step was not going to be as an employee in another large firm. But my first thought was to start a consulting business, even though I had wanted to go out on my own as a coach for several years.
Why?
Because I was scared to death. Because there was something I knew I wanted that I had secretly wanted for years, but didn’t know if I could get.
I wanted to coach. I wanted to coach founders and business owners. And I had no idea how to do that and if I would succeed.
At least for the first few months I chose consulting over coaching because I was scared I would try to be a coach and fail.
I was scared because I saw no reasonable way to make a full time living as a coach.
I was scared to go after my dream because of what it might mean about me if I didn’t succeed.
It took a conversation with a good friend to change that. To see that this was a calling, and the universe had actually given me a severance package and space to go after it. I now had an obligation, for myself, my family and my future clients, to pursue it.
That was in 2016. Today, on the other side of that fear, things look very different.
What Are You Scared Of?
When I hear a successful business owner talk about what is practical or realistic I start to get really curious.
Why do they feel the need to be practical? Why do they feel the need to do more of the same, even as they are bored or stagnant?
Often, what’s behind that is fear.
Sometimes there is so much fear there that the person in front of me is unaware of it.
They are afraid to even feel it. To acknowledge there is a dream that is beckoning them, that might have been calling for a long time even as they tried to dismiss it.
Behind that fear is often a clue to what they have really been wanting the whole time.
What are you afraid that your success might have been preparing you for?
Following that fear might be even more critical than following your bliss.
How To Dig Deeper
How do you get access to a fear you are unaware of?
Get quiet. Go off the grid. Spend some time away from the environment you have been so successful in.
There is a quiet patient voice that has been waiting for you. Waiting to share the next step on your journey.
When you can hear that voice, or sense that knowing, you will see the next step.
And for many, after years of an outer journey, the next phase will be an inner one. One more aligned to your true purpose, beyond your capacity to create a business or external success.
One where the internal journey may lead to depths that actually astonish you as you discover who you really are.
What is it that is calling you? What if you were willing to pursue that, especially in the face of your fear?
Does This Resonate?
Does any of this resonate with you?
If so, reach out to me and I’ll send you a special video that goes even deeper.
More and more founders like you are coming out of the spiritual closet and seeing their work as a vital personal journey to both abundance and meaning.
This is what I write about. For founders, for original thinkers, no matter where they are in their transformation.
The world needs YOU, in all your brilliance and imperfection.
If you are a founder wanting to scale and sell your company, there are three shifts in identity that can help you do so with twice the impact and half the stress. Take a look at this video.
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