About 40 miles north of Melbourne, Australia, there’s a mountain named Mt. Disappointment.
The story goes that it got its name because two people didn’t quite enjoy the view at the summit - the explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell hoped to get a view of the Port Phillip Bay, but dense tree growth prevented it.
In addition, Hume suffered a painful injury to his groin “which caused him much distress”, and they had to rest for 5 days.
All that considered, you’d probably agree that Mt. Disappointment is a pretty mild name for that particular mountain.
Now...
… What about the mountain you are climbing?
Meaning, building a successful, thriving business online is a pretty arduous task. Very much like climbing a mountain in 1824. (By the way, today Mt. Disappointment is a pretty popular hiking trail from what I read).
Anyhow… if you do it even half-assedly, every day, it takes away hours from things you’d probably enjoy more. At least in the short term.
But when you reach the summit… will you, too, be disappointed with what you see?
Unfortunately, that’s the case for a lot of people, who, even after getting a successful business going, ultimately end up being disappointed… because it hardly looks like what they imagined.
Why the disconnect?
Here’s what I think.
Despite what we might tell ourselves and others, the reason a lot of us are in this type of business is to have the means and the ability to say...
“Screw you”.
For example…
If you’re sick and tired of 12 and 14 hour days at a job, imagine you have the means and the ability to say “Screw you… I quit!”
If you’re fed up with struggling to pay your mortgage, imagine you have the means and the ability to say “Screw you… Here’s what I owe on the house and I never want to hear from you again!”
Or, maybe - and I think this is the worst case of all - you’re done with having your talent and true calling wasted and the best years of your life spent working for someone else… while you could be genuinely helping people make their lives better.
Because the ability to say “screw you” to someone or something doesn’t have to be negative. You can say “screw you” to other people’s greed and set an example on how to create a value-based business… and so on.
The main thing here is to honestly admit to yourself what it is you’re after. And why.
And most people get this little exercise wrong… because they think that
1) Having money as their main motivator is somehow bad (which it is not!)
2) And, that their source of motivation will never evolve.
Here’s what I mean.
You might find that at the beginning of your journey you are going to be very much driven by money.
“If only I could make enough money to not worry about my car payment!”
Once you take care of that, it might be the mortgage. Or it might be having six months worth of income in your bank account, a rainy day fund that you can rely on to weather you through tough times.
But I’m a firm believer of the following.
Sooner or later, you’re going to discover that there are things that matter more than money. You’re going to pay attention to things like how your business affects other people. How you’re delivering value to your customers by improving their lives so that they, in turn, can worry less about little things that don’t matter.
So it’s absolutely fine to start with money as your main motivator as you begin your climb.
But keep on refining that and constantly ask yourself…
“What am I after - and what am I adding to the world?”
Because the ultimate fulfillment comes from adding value to other people’s lives.
If you don’t do that… you might still climb the mountain of building your own business. But you might suffer a groin injury along the way (figuratively speaking of course), and wish you could call your mountain Mt. Disappointment.
To Your Success, Paul Hanson 805-905-3533
P.S. Here's a way you may be able to accelerate the ability to say "screw you" to your boss! Find out for yourself right here how simple this can be.
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