Jake Burhans argues your self-image determines entrepreneurial success more than effort. If you see yourself as lazy or bad at sales, that identity blocks you from changing, no matter how hard you try. Rewire who you believe you are first, and the behavior follows naturally.
If you're not operating from the self-image of the person that you want to become, it's going to be impossible to find any sort of success. Your system is what they call an attractor state. It's always going to revert to its most familiar way of being. So if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, but you see yourself as someone who's lazy, undisciplined, has never been able to do sales, has never been able to do anything— I'm not outgoing, I can't do this, I can't do that— well, hey, guess what? You're never going to be a successful entrepreneur because you need to rewire at the identity level who you are. And that is the crux of the internal work. It's upgrading your self-image before the external results appear. That's believing in yourself, right? So that you can go out and do the things. Because as soon as you see yourself as that person, it's game over. You don't need any motivation to make sales calls because you're already a successful entrepreneur. What does a successful entrepreneur do? They freaking love sales. They get up and they eat leads for breakfast. Okay? So I get up the phone, I make calls. But if you see yourself as a timid person who's never been good at sales, you're not going to be successful. So if you need a lot of discipline and motivation to do what you need to do, it's because you haven't developed the self-image of the person who is already successful at that thing.
