Why Lifestyle En­tre­pre­neurs Fail

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple buy prod­ucts how to build their lifestyle busi­ness, how to work from home, or how to live the lap­top lifestyle.

Yet, it’s com­mon knowl­edge that most don’t even get started. Or, if they get started, never ar­rive at the fin­ish line. They’re stuck in place like the pet­ri­fied man in the im­age above.

If you’re in this trap, this post will help!

Look­ing at my­self, I have more un­fin­ished ideas and prod­ucts on my hard disk than I like to ad­mit. It’s a 3 digit num­ber of un­fin­ished projects!

What’s hold­ing us back?

• Some say “I don’t know how to do it.” Yet, there’s enough in­for­ma­tion avail­able on how to build a business.
• Some say “It’s in­for­ma­tion over­load. I don’t know where to get started.” Yet, any­one truly com­mit­ted would just get started somewhere.
• Some say “It’s fear of fail­ure.” An un­proven cliché.

Ques­tion­ing the cliché rea­sons and find­ing the real rea­son has been a huge DISCOVERY for myself.

Once you’ve looked through smoke and mir­rors and find out what’s hold­ing you back, you’re free to move to­wards the rich life you desire.

The rea­son WHY you want to be a Lifestyle En­tre­pre­neur is also the rea­son that’s hold­ing you back.

It’s a vi­cious act of self-sabotage.

It’s not fear of fail­ure, that’s hold­ing you back.

It’s fear of success.

Suc­cess is the worst thing that could hap­pen to you.

Think about it.

What’s the num­ber one VALUE we all have in com­mon? The rea­son why we want to fire the boss and live life on our terms?

It’s our ir­ra­tional crav­ing for FREEDOM!

And what hap­pens the mo­ment you ac­tu­ally fol­low through build­ing a busi­ness? What if you truly succeed? 

You’d lose the free­dom you value so much!

• You’d have to be avail­able for cus­tomer sup­port ²⁴⁄₇.
• You’d have to cre­ate fol­low up prod­ucts or de­liver services.
• You’d have set dates for we­bi­nars with JV partners.
• You’d have to keep work­ing on your marketing.
• You’d have to file tax reports.

The only way to keep your free­dom is to NOT suc­ceed! Even if it means you’re stuck in your cur­rent life situation.

To build the lifestyle you de­sire you must con­quer the free­­dom-com­mit­­ment paradox!

These 2 steps will do it:

1. Un­der­stand that you’ll al­ways be free to ditch the biz. If you have given your­self the free­dom to not fol­low through un­til now, you can also give your­self the free­dom later to stop the biz at any time you want.

It’s not enough to un­der­stand this on an in­tel­lec­tual level. Un­less it’s in your feel­ing you won’t be­lieve it.

• Use your imag­i­na­tion for some made-up sce­nar­ios: Imag­ine fu­ture suc­cess and then your free choice to stop the biz and throw away every­thing. Stay re­laxed and calm imag­in­ing this.
• Think about pre­vi­ous jobs or hob­bies that you’ve given up. To­day they are most likely mean­ing­less to you. That’s good. It means you’ll al­ways be free to change course. To make new choices. You won’t be stuck in your com­mit­ments forever.

2. Em­brace the free­­dom-com­mit­­ment para­dox. Com­mit­ment is hard for free­­dom-seek­ers. But sab­o­tag­ing your­self is the op­po­site of free­dom. Your ir­ra­tional de­sire to be free is keep­ing you locked in where you are. It’s a strait­jacket that we’ve put on ourselves.

Try the try the fol­low­ing brain twister.  Use it as a mantra for a few days, and see what it does:

“I’m free to com­mit my­self to build­ing this business.”