Experiments With Hope - Episode 38: False Prophets

NOTE: This episode was recorded on March 18th, 2019 and moved from YouTube on January 23rd, 2021.

Some people are really vulnerable to entrepreneurship scams. They've tried dozens of new business ideas, but they've spent more money than they've made. I've met people who have spent five and six-figure sums on entrepreneurial ventures, training courses, seminars and business opportunities, and made nearly nothing as a result. Why are some people so vulnerable to these entrepreneurial scams? In my experience, there are two reasons. First, because many of them are what I call "Entrepreneurial Tourists." In other words, they like all the positive things entrepreneurship offers: the uncapped income potential, the power to make their own schedule, and the opportunity to make a living doing what they love.

But, Entrepreneurial Tourists are often in denial about the costs and risks involved in starting a business. They spend loads of money on training, and business opportunities like MLM because they're looking for some magic business formula that will dump boatloads of money into their lap with little or no effort on their part. Others are in too much of a damn hurry to go from making nothing to being a multimillionaire. They've been fooled by the "overnight success" myth, which ignores the incredible amounts of time, energy, and money entrepreneurs usually put into their business before it finally takes off.

But more than any of these, Entrepreneurial Tourists are often obsessed with perfection. My 10,000+ hours of one-on-one coaching experience has taught me that many ambitious people have a warped and even masochistic view of perfectionism. They call themselves perfectionists and if it's something to be proud of. The truth is, perfectionism can get you to a certain level of personal achievement. But, at some level, perfectionism becomes the very thing which locks people into an income plateau and blocks them from achieving past a certain level. In the first book of my series Single Serving Wisdom, I say that today's stepping stones often become tomorrow's stumbling blocks and that what got you where you are today can often stop you from going where you want to go next.

Perfectionism is one such example. Perfectionism can get you to a certain level of success, but at some point, it becomes the very thing which stops you from getting to the next level. To overcome this paradox, you have to become very specific about how you apply your perfectionism. If not, you'll become a ripe target for the scammers and snake oil salesman in the self-help and business advice world. You'll always be in search of the next perfect program for getting you past where you are now. When, in reality, your perfectionism has taken you as far as it can take you, and you can only get to the next level of success, not by doing more of what you've been doing, but by changing your beliefs about what it takes to get you past where you are now.

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