Be Honest about Where You're Holding Yourself Back

2 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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In this brief talk, speaker Mike Brown introduces the "upper limits problem," a self‑sabotaging tendency common among entrepreneurs. He explains that when individuals surpass the level of success they originally envisioned—whether that’s seven, nine, or another figure—they often instinctively pull back. This pull‑back occurs when their wealth no longer aligns with their personal values, leading to statements like “I don’t need any more success.” Such rationalizations serve as subtle mechanisms to keep themselves small and avoid further growth.

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This is one of the most insidious things I see with entrepreneurs, and it's best described by a concept I call the upper limits problem. Once we hit some level of success that is beyond what our dreams were, and this might be different for everybody, so this might be, you know, 7 figures for some person, this might be 9 figures for another person. When we bump up against the place where we first set our goal, our tendency is to pull back. So if we don't align our wealth, our values, that's where we tend to stagnate. That's where we hear statements like, oh, I don't need any more success. I've got everything I could ever dream about. Those are actually subtle ways of keeping ourselves small.