Over 40 and Overwhelmed about Entrepreneurship

Part 2 – Security

Overwhelmed Entrepreneur

As I stated in the previous post, health insurance, 401k, steady paycheck, and already knowing what is expected of you by your current employer all contributes to security. These also contribute to being an overwhelmed entrepreneur.

You go in, you know your job, you understand exactly what is expected of you, how much you’ll get paid and what your benefits are.  Now that’s security, right? 

Maybe.

It’s secure until it isn’t. Profound statement I know. Really, I’m not trying to scare you, it’s just reality that corporate work is not any more secure than working for yourself. It can all be over in an instant.

Not trying to be a downer but throwing out some truths which need to be addressed and evaluated instead of just swept up under the rug.

If you’ve ever been through corporate layoffs you know how stressful it can be with fear and worry. Unless of course you’re like I was and you’re dying to get laid off so you can get a nice severance package.

To Be or Not To Be Laid Off

Remember in the first blog post in this series (click here to read) when I was first going to quit my job? What I didn’t share was that same month the company announced there would be some layoffs. As it happened I was not one of those they would be laying off.

I’m not sure who felt worse, those who desperately wanted to keep their job or me who desperately wanted to leave it. I would have gladly traded with one of them.

Security, as Tony Robbins puts it, is a human need and I agree. Some years ago I used to travel to his events all over the U.S. and help put them on. It was so much fun and I learned a lot, so I got to understand human needs intimately. Security is extremely powerful.

Because it is so powerful it keeps many would be entrepreneurs from even getting started. At the very least it keeps most from giving their business venture the full dedication and time it deserves.

You Must Create Your Own Feeling Of Security

Getting past this is difficult but not impossible. Much of it depends on what kind of support you have from your family and how much money you have saved.

The single most important thing to get past the feeling of security is to create your own security.

This kind of security has to do with your mindset – money can only be comforting and is far second. Knowing exactly what you want and being willing to become the type of person who gets it is real security.

How To Program Your Mind – You Got This!

This is not earth shattering information here. You’ve no doubt done this before when trying to accomplish other goals in your life.

The best thing you can do is have a clear, concise and written plan. Once you know exactly what you want to do this makes it real. You can see it and when you have written it down you can now feel it because it’s hardwired into your brain.

The power of actually writing by hand will bind your ideas to your brain in a way which activates what Dr. Maxwell Maltz in his classic book, Psycho-Cybernetics, describes as the Automatic Success Mechanism.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying. You may not write down your business goals and instantly be on your way to success. Instead what happens is your idea gets subtly introduced to your subconscious. The great thing about this is your subconscious will work on it by helping create ideas and a plan to achieve your goal.

Rewrite this plan every single day when you first wake up. You have the time – wake up 10 minutes early. You got 10 minutes and if you don’t you probably aren’t at that “point”.

When the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change, you will choose to change.

Don’t Knock It Before You Try It
Remember Mikey?

I didn’t like that commercial but it did make a good point and we all remember the peer pressure of those kids on Mikey. Let’s hope they didn’t get Mikey into any trouble later on in life.

So, before you think this is all a bunch of mumbo jumbo, realize almost every successful person you can name has done the same thing in one form or another, whether they know it or not.

I’m just providing a tool to help you get started. You still have to do the work but the more you concentrate on your goal and get clear about exactly what it is you want the less you will have any fear or doubt in starting your entrepreneurial journey.

The journey is not a straight line. I wish! It’s having a fixed destination in mind and a willingness to adjust with changes, interruptions and all of life’s challenges which will inevitably come up.  Sometimes it’s one step forward and two steps back. Sometimes it’s inching along at what seems to be a snails pace. Sometimes though, it’s a huge quantum leap where you get more accomplished in a few months than you did in the past 20 years. It will happen.

Security just has to do with how you feel. Nothing more or less. It’s our life and we owe it to ourselves to make sure we’ve not only lived it to the best of our ability but to pass on our experience to our children.

Please let me know what you think by commenting or going to my Ask Ben page and providing feedback.

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All the best,

Ben Blackmon

Next up: Approval – (Or Lack Thereof)