7 Reasons Why Entrepreneur Success is Not About the Money and 1 Reason Why It Is
It takes passion and a strong mission for people to embark on an entrepreneurial venture and see it through to the end. The challenges are vast and the path meanders, twists, dips and climbs. When I speak to entrepreneurs I hear predominantly about their beliefs, their ideals, their passions, their purpose. Often in my coaching practice I work with people who are searching for these things within the context of their work. Other times they’ve got the vision pieces but lack the clarity and the tangible structure to put it all together into a financially sustainable business model.
Staying the path amidst the challenges requires starting foundation that is not about the money. Here are 7 Important Reasons why .
1. Passion/Belief – What moves you? Passion is the thing that compels you to hang on by your finger nails through the hardest of times. Belief in your mission is crucial to success. It is the undercurrent – deep and strong – of why you do what you do.
2. Meaning -Why this thing? We make choices in our life because of our core values. What has meaning for you is what will motivate you. Knowing your core values and getting deep clarity on that which has meaning for you, sets the stage for the business that you build.
3. Impact -Where can I make a difference? Impact is the outcome measure of your actions. What is it you are wanting to change? Who is it you are desiring to effect with your mission, your services , your products? Your impact statement will be a reflection of your Passion/Belief and Meaning on the outcome end of the scale.
4. Altruism- Doing good does good. Generosity of spirit creates a business that is much more than product/service out and money in. Doing good from your heart forms a strong backbone for a 21st century business.
5. Karma – You have come into this life with your unique set of challenges to overcome. As you move through your own curriculum and make peace with your demons, you free up your unique talents that are the skills leading you to fulfill your purpose in this lifetime. Those things that give you meaning, the impact you want to create, the beliefs that you have are all the end goal of your time here on earth.
6. Joy – How can you structure your life so joy is a daily experience? Life is short. Making choices in harmony with your values, your motivations, your desires and your dreams sets up the structure of waking up excited for the day. Joy is internal. It is perceptual. There is much about joy that has nothing to do with the experience and everything to do with the meaning you ascribe to the experience. Living with Joy allows great energy to flow through you – effecting all aspects of your life and your business.
7. Freedom – Living life on purpose. Creating a life by design. Stepping to someone else’s drum beat sends shivers up the spines of entrepreneurs. Most crave independence to choose, to decide, to create that is the antithesis of behavior expected in a traditional workplace. Only by stepping outside the box, by enlarging what’s possible, can one live a life of freedom.
Money
Let’s get real about money. Money is not inherently anything. It is a symbol of value that has been mutually accepted throughout the majority of cultures worldwide. Money in your hand is nothing more than a coin or a piece of paper worth far less than the value ascribed to it. But we have decided in our world, that it has a value both financially and on a deeper level. Money is how we measure. Money is a tangible representation of the value of ones experience with a service or with a product.
Money is a necessity even if all 7 of the items listed above seem more important to you with regards to your heart and your values. They are not and here is why. You must pay for your housing. You have to eat. You require transportation. Your children need clothing. It is necessary to invest into your business. If you have charity goals and an altruistic mission, you will struggle to make even the barest impact if you cannot put food in your own mouth and a roof over your own head.
You get to decide how much money is enough for you. But don’t get so sucked up into passion/purpose/meaning/freedom to such a great extent that you forget that without a business that creates revenue for you, you will have none of it.
An Entrepreneurial Business IS about the money for this one very important reason. It’s that money is the currency of our society that is a necessity unless you are planning on living in your parents basement forever and trading recycled cans for coins to buy Ramen noodles.
When developing your foundation up through building your skyscraper, be aware that all of the wonderful, powerful, lofty aspirations of entrepreneurship come through creating at the very least, enough of an income to have a financially sustainable business entity and support your basic living needs. For the amount of effort you will put into to growing your business, I say, shoot for the moon. The more successful you are financially, the more you have power to fulfill all 7 of the other reasons not only for yourself, but for others as well.
Coaching both privately and in groups, Deborah is also a speaker, author, event leader and consultant. Creator of the Foundation and Framework Intensive, Question Master and Leader of the Entrepreneur Business Success Club, Deborah has been called an “Architect of Magical Business and Soul Structure”by her clients because she has a powerful ability to perform alchemy, changing passions and dreams into money and time by design.
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great blog Deborah. People sometimes think money is a dirty word. But we can do so much more in the world when we have it.
I think that this is something that is determined more off of the success of the relationships you can develop in the start up of your business. This is something that I have been struggling with because I was raised that it was all about the money and do everything you can to get the next dollar but the relationships were not stressed at all.
I’ve been dreaming since childhood that one day I would invent something amazing and start my own company. I taught myself code as a teenager, all the while scheming to build the next great web property (until mobile tech came along). I guess I am a secret risk-taker, trapped in a corporate day job and now I’ve got a chance to start that business I have always imagined. Thanks for this encouraging information.
Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, requiring a great deal of time, you had better enjoy it. When Sir Richard Branson started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, he did not set out to build a business empire. He set out to create something he enjoyed that would pay the bills. There was no great plan or strategy. The name itself was thought up on the hoof. One night some friends and him were chatting over a few drinks and decided to call the group Virgin, as they were all new to business. The name stuck and had a certain ring to it.
If you start a business with out the passion to do so then you are sure to fail because the first time it gets hard you will close the doors so to speak and give up. You have to be in a business you believe in and you have a passion for rather than something you want to get money out of. This is a great post thank you for doing such great work.
Georgia you’re right, if you have no desire or passion as you put it to do what it is you do then you’re not going to be successful at it, you are going to do the bare minimum to get by while doing it and that is it. I have seen many people try to just pay the bills with what they thought was a good business idea but had no passion and ultimately failed.
For most entrepreneurs and small-business owners, it seems like there are never enough hours in the day. The pressure to make sure everything’s running smoothly means days go quickly and the to-do list easily gets lost amid ever-changing priorities. How you begin the day is really important. I try to get up early, and I’m not really a morning person. The first thing I’ll do is go for a bike ride and shoot hoops to clear my head, relieve some stress, and think about challenges I’m currently facing.
All of your reasons are great and so true, I am in the process of starting a business and this has made me slow down and really take a good look at myself and what I am trying to accomplish here. Thank you so much for taking the time to really make this a great post that will help many I am sure. I look forward to sharing it with others.
This sounds like a fine balancing act that you have to do to keep things from tipping one way or the other as far as going after money alone or doing it for the passion of it only. If you do it for the passion only then you are going to be broke and if you do it for the money only you will eventually hat your job that you started out loving.
Who am I to oppose an expert trainer? But some entrepreneurs will torture themselves with the same question, over and over. Everything’s riding on this question; success or failure will be determined by the answer. Or at least it feels that way. It’s “THE MOST IMPORTANT question: Is this my passion? It’s a common opinion that passion is the key to every successful business. That if you aren’t PASSIONATE about what you do, you’ll never be motivated enough to stick with it, invest loads of time and money into it – essentially, you won’t work night and day to make it work.
It wasn’t too long ago that emotions had no place in the business world. They were seen as a total waste of time and unproductive. Boy, how things have changed. Today, inspiring emotions is a critical part of any entrepreneur’s business repertoire and the social skills required have to be developed to create a positive impact on the bottom line. If there is a desire for stronger leadership, you have to understand the one thing that’ll change the way you do business.