Evan Carmichael describes the cycle of setting goals, winning, then chasing the next target, which he calls growth anxiety. After your business survives financially, you can choose to stay small without guilt. Ted Turner set lifelong unattainable goals to stay driven, but that's his choice, not yours.
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Is it okay not to grow your business? It's an interesting question and one that came in from one of my YouTube viewers, uh, Jarocello, who wrote in to say, "Is it okay not to grow your business anymore? What do you think about it? Thanks." Most entrepreneurs are driven people and we like setting goals and we'd like going after something newer and bigger. We're excited by going after new goals. And once we achieve a goal, we get a little depressed and we want to go after something bigger. And you'll often see this with a lot of entrepreneurs when they've set a goal for themselves. I want to get this done. XYZ done. They'll work like crazy, work super hard to get there, and eventually they achieve it. And it's a huge celebration. Like, I just did this. Yeah, I feel really good about myself. We had a great impact, or whatever your goal was. And then they get depressed because they don't know what to do next until they find another business or another goal to shoot for. I remember when I had my first software company, we wanted to build it up to eventually sell it. This was part of our goal, and it was a huge struggle to get this thing off the ground. And, you know, lost money for a long time and eventually turned it around. And I could tell you the story if you want. It's buried in a lot of the videos I created. And eventually I sold the business, and it was a huge high. Yeah, I did it, you know, a couple years, built this up, sold it off, amazing. And then it was like, well, what do I do next? It was, it was almost a depression. It's like I put so much into this and now it's gone, and I've got nothing to do. And I had to really examine in my life what I wanted to do next. And what, what, where to spend my time, right? It sounds like a great problem to have, and I guess it is, but it's still a problem. And I eventually stumbled onto creating this new business of EvanCarmichael.com, and I haven't given up on that. I love that, and it's still become— it's still part of my passion every day that I live. So I'm very grateful for that. But typically entrepreneurs will hit that point where they've accomplished their goal and then they want to do something else. I remember Ted Turner, if you read his story, his one main goal was to create something that he would never accomplish in his lifetime. He wanted something far beyond what was possible in his lifetime to keep him motivated because he felt if he accomplished his goal, he wouldn't have anything else to do. So he purposely set outrageous goals and then went out and attacked them because that's what inspired him. Now, this is most entrepreneurs. We like chasing goals. We like achieving. We like more. We like building bigger. But it doesn't have to be. And the answer really depends on you. There's nothing wrong with being at your level. And there's a certain level of work-life balance that you can have, there's a certain level of impact that you can have, and maybe you want to work with people more intimately, more one-on-one than helping the masses, and that means you're spending your time, right, one-on-one instead of helping tons of people, but it's more intimate, more direct. Maybe that's where you get your satisfaction. Obviously you need to get to a certain point where you can survive, right? If this is going to be your full-time gig, You're not going to work at some company. You have to make enough from your business to support yourself. Once you get past that survival point, it's really up to you. How big do you want this to be? What are you all about? And whatever answer feels right in your heart, that's the answer. There's nobody that should convince you one way or the other or make you feel bad for not growing bigger if you don't want to grow bigger. Be a fantastic, great small company that you like your work-life balance, you like the impact you have in your community, and be confident and proud of that. And don't let other people drag you down if they think you should be bigger when you don't want to be. You're contrarian to most entrepreneurs, but I love it. It's great to see, and that's what we do as entrepreneurs, you know. We challenge the status quo. We make things different, and we have a view of the world that is different than what it is today, and we reach to go out and make that happen. So it's a great question, and there's nothing wrong with not wanting to grow if you don't want to. Believe. For you guys watching, you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I love seeing those come in, and please let me know what you think. Leave a comment underneath. Let me know what's on your mind. Let me know if you have a question. I'd be happy to answer it for you. Thank you so much, and I will see you soon.
