Nobody is talking about this sh%!...

One of the things I think does not get enough attention as a topic of conversation for entrepreneurs is how much fucking pressure business owners carry. And I think they have this enormous amount of pressure for a few reasons. The first one being it's social pressure. So once your family, your friends, everyone from back home, everyone that was in your circle before you decided to go to chiropractic school and become a business owner, they all start to ask you, "How's business going? How's business? Is business good?" And although you're screaming inside, because of how challenging it actually is, and that nobody fucking taught me this shit, and I'm having to figure all of this out on my own through massive failures that I have to adapt and overcome. But instead, you just grin and say, it's good. Yeah, business is good. Yeah, we're figuring it out. We're making it happen. Um, we're making it through, you know, whatever positive reframe that you try to spin on it. But deep down, you know that you're scratching and clawing with every ounce of effort just to make it happen. And I think that that, that alone is enough to cripple most business owners, which is why 90% of businesses don't last past the first 3 years. Most people can't handle that. They can't handle, first off, all of the pressure that comes with the skills that you didn't have in order to actually launch something successful and make it through the first 3 years. And then you also can't handle the social pressure that it comes— that comes along with it. And then the second reason why I think there's so much pressure on the backs of entrepreneurs is a modern problem, which is social media, man. Dude, there's so many people right now that I'm seeing on social media that are embellishing stories and embellishing their income and trying to make you think that they're making a certain amount of money in their practice that they're not making. And you know, even as a coach in the industry, it's because they're trying to funnel you into their coaching program, which is where they make all their money, not even in their practice. Ah, it's just like, man, it's so hard because then you're comparing yourself versus the success of other people. And so you think that you're not doing as well as you should be, and so you start to have self-deprecating thoughts. And anytime that you let those negative thought processes enter your headspace, it's going to change the way that you behave. For some people, frustration's a super productive emotion. It can actually help you, help inspire you essentially to work harder, to do more, to take larger risks and invest in yourself and invest in your business. And if that's the case, that's great, but you're one of few. For most people, we're so overwhelmed by stress right now from loads of different, different stimuli that if you have self-deprecating thoughts, it's typically hard to overcome. So what it actually does is put you in this negative feedback loop to think that I can't do it. And so you start to have a scarcity mentality, which means you stop being willing to invest in yourself, invest in your business, to actually make data-informed decisions that are based on logic instead of fear-based decisions based on emotions. And because of that, you fail. And then we're back in the negative feedback loop of the social pressure, because now every time somebody asks you, "How's business?" you have to grin through that fake smile and tell them, "It's going alright," even though realistically you know that everything is crumbling underneath you. And the hardest part is whenever you actually finally have to make the decision to hang it up and to close shop and to go work for somebody else. And not that working for somebody else is a problem. It's not. In a lot of cases, uh, I think it's the best option for 90% of people because it gives you the option to show up, to work, to serve, and to make a fixed income with some type of higher earning potential through a bonus structure or some type of commission structure to where you can make more money sometimes than the owners of the practice. And I think a lot of people, for some reason, they let their, their ego take the lead, and they think that I have to own the business in order to be successful. That's not true. You just got to work hard, and you got to serve people, and you also have to make room for all the other aspects of your life. And if being a business owner is not for you, that's fine. Don't be a business owner. But if it is for you, stop comparing yourself to other people. And stop allowing the social pressure to force you into lying about the journey. Because when people ask you, how's it going, tell them it fucking sucks. To be honest, it's really hard. They taught me to be a chiropractor, but they didn't teach me to be a business owner. So right now I'm being forced to figure out so many new skills and so many new aspects of business that I didn't even know existed. Before I took this dive. Like, tell them the truth so that it feels congruent and it feels authentic and it feels honest coming through you, because that's what's going to inspire you along the grind to be like, yeah, it is hard, but I am actually looking outside of my circle for resources that can help me get a leg up so that I can shortcut my path to success, or that I can ensure that my business continues to exist because most people aren't willing to do that. Most people aren't willing to be vulnerable. Most people, most people aren't willing to share things other than their highlight reels, right? They're sharing a facade. They're embellishing stories. They're fabricating stories. It's fucking undeniable. And it sucks right now, to be honest. But get that shit out of your head and put your head down and get to work. And look for one person that you believe is where you want to be and that got to that place doing the same exact thing that you want to do, and reach out to that person and ask, what do you have that I can buy that can help me get where I want to go faster, or can help ensure that I'm gonna get where I want to go regardless of how much time it takes? Do that. Stop scrolling on social media. Stop comparing yourself to other people and stop allowing people in your circle who realistically you don't really care about their opinion anyway. You care about your close family, your wife, your children, your husband, those people. What do they think about you? They see your character traits. They see that you are persevering through hard times and that's all that matters. Fuck what anybody else thinks. And to be honest, tell them the truth. Tell them the truth because their story is not as embellished and pure as they're putting it out to be as well. So if you're vulnerable with them and you tell them how you're really feeling, they'll probably say, "Me too. Me too, and I commend and I respect you even more for telling me that, and I wish you luck. I want you to succeed. Is there anything I can do to support you?" As opposed to feeling envious of you whenever you tell them, "I'm doing great. Business is doing awesome." And they're like, "Man, I wish my business was doing awesome," or, "I wish I felt that way." about my job, my career, my business. And so they start to compare themselves to you instead of you just being vulnerable and telling the truth. So it's a really weird place to be. But anyway, just a rant that I had because I feel the same way and I felt the same way throughout my entire entrepreneurial journey, man. It's fucking lonely being an entrepreneur because nobody around you understands how hard it is and everybody wants to cast their stone of judgment and their opinion and tell you what they think that you could do better. Maybe it's associates, maybe it's staff members, maybe it's team members, maybe it's people outside your circle. And the only people that understand and know that you are doing what it takes and that the man in the arena's opinion is the only opinion that matters, not the critics that are sitting in the stands that have no fucking idea how hard it is to constantly have decision fatigue and constantly be having to weigh the priorities that you can implement in your business right now. You have a huge list of priorities, but you can only do one thing at a time. And everybody thinks that that one thing should be their thing. But that's not true. Their opinions don't matter. The only people that can say, "I see you," are the people that are in the same shoes. Find those people. Talk to those people. Be vulnerable with those people and ask those people, "How'd you get there? How'd you get there and how'd it feel along the way?" And I bet they'll tell you, don't get too high on the highs, don't get, don't get too low on the lows because it's a volatile journey, man. It's volatile and it's treacherous. But if you just stay the course and you grab a commander-in-chief or some type of upper echelon officer that's been where you are, that's been in the trenches, that's been through the mud, that's done the hard work and is now wearing the brass. Okay? They can help you. Look to those people only, not the people that are being super fucking loud telling you how much money they're making. Stop listening to those people. Stop giving any type of positive reinforcement to those people whatsoever because they're toxic for this culture. They're toxic for this profession. That's all I have.