Josh TrentIdentity Transformation Architect and award winning Host of the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast—a decade-strong show with over 750 episodes and 15M downloads.

Business can free you... or become your prison #podcast #entrepreneur

1 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

In this reflective monologue, the speaker recounts a period of intense entrepreneurial pressure where he needed to secure $50,000 for payroll, get a magazine printed, and free his father from prison. While he succeeded in freeing his father, the relentless drive left him depleted, self‑abandoned, and trapped in a cycle of overwork. He identifies a deep‑seated fear that imperfection would lead to loss of love and abandonment, which compelled him to keep adding more tasks instead of stopping. The speaker argues that true resilience requires resourcing oneself before crisis hits and recognizing that childhood survival patterns—an inner 8‑year‑old—often dictate adult behavior. By pausing with compassion, examining these patterns, and choosing healthier actions, one can create sustainable plans to release the self‑imposed prison and make space for personal growth.

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My to-do list at that time looked like, find $50,000 to make payroll this week, get your magazine to print, and get your dad out of prison. So I got my father out of prison, but at the same time, I was building myself into my own prison of depletion, self-abandonment, overwork. Why did I feel like abandoning myself in that process was the only thing to do? Why did I feel like I needed to just add more and I couldn't stop? There was a fear so deep in me that if I stopped and if I wasn't perfect, that I would not be loved and everyone would leave me. But we have to learn how to resource ourselves before we need it. Unless you are the one that is willing to make the changes and make the shifts, wherever you go, there you will be. So I think it's really important that when we notice that our survival patterns are running our show, our little 8-year-old is running our life, not our adult selves. Yeah. When we notice that, we pause, we have compassion, we look at it, we say, what would be a healthier choice? And then we start to make a plan for how we're going to release things in a healthy, sustainable way, and only then can we make the space for ourselves to rise.