Ray Brehm - The Entrepreneur Code: The Habits of Creators (Self Help Success Book 4)

By Ray Brehm

By Troy Broussard

By Lisa McNair Palmer

By Jean Saxby

By Monica Rubombora

By Tony Pisanelli

By Charylle Wolfe

By Kathaleen Coyle

By Frani Burick

By Sophie Benshitta Maven

By Christina Peters

By Patricia Sherman

By Linda Berry

A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.

Vince Lombardi

I t was a long drive home. I was numb. My life was quickly changing, and I wasnt sure what to do.

I left lunch with a couple of friends from my beloved entrepreneur group, and they had let me know I was no longer qualified to be a member.

They were right.

Logical justification rarely helps when you are heartbroken, even if it is correct.

The heartbreak came as I realized things were far worse than that. My financial situation was dire.

After selling my brick-and-mortar business, I spent the next year ridding myself of windfall on high-priced theory coaching and Facebook ads.

Now I was at a point where I was nearly out of cash, the old company gone, and my new business wasnt generating sustainable income for me. Oh, and I was no longer part of my entrepreneur group, which had been my inner circle for over five years.

It was heartbreaking on many fronts.

The only thing I could do was try to take massive action.

But what was that?

Depression is not a fit state of mind for creative thinking.

The thought crossed my mind daily that I might need to get a real job. I started looking at the want ads.

Admittedly, the most crushing blow was the thought that my dream career, as an online entrepreneur, would not work out.

Would I ever be happy working for someone else?

Most assuredly not. In fact, I spent some 20 years in the corporate world prior to my entrepreneurial life, and it had been agonizing.

For me, the most important part of being an entrepreneur was the freedom of a boss and bureaucracy.

But I had to do something.

First things first. I watched some Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi videos to get my mindset heading in the right direction.

Second, I had to take action on all fronts. That meant canceling all bill payments except for the absolute essentials.

I had some things going on in my business, including hosting an upcoming virtual summit. I couldnt let those lapse, even if they served no purpose, because I had interviewed and started relationships with many influencers.

I also sent out one job application (to Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosis Mastermind.com company).

Every time I felt bad, which was often, I would repeat a mantra I created:

I am worthy.

I am wealthy.

I live an abundant life.

I just kept saying it to myself (regardless of whether or not I believed it in the beginning).

And miraculously, things started to happen. I will never be able to explain it without just saying the universe responded.

Over the next couple of weeks, we made small sales on affiliate products.

Then came the virtual summit. And I had the best three-week income period of my life to that point.

It was unbelievable.

It forever changed my mindset and belief system.

And yet, there was a time during the start of that deep hole I found myself in that I was vulnerable. Had someone offered me a secure job, I might have taken it.

There is a book by Sharon L. Lechter called Three Feet From Gold about this very topic.

If I had taken a job and given up, I would have stopped digging three feet from my gold.

I would never have known what I was capable of.

In fact, as I shared my hardship with other entrepreneurs, many times the response was

This is your first time running out of money or having a hardship? Wow, I have been there three or four times.

I would say I had to learn it the hard way, but is there any other way we truly learn?

It is kind of like building muscle. You must tear down the muscle to build it back stronger.

No pain, no gain.

I had convinced myself that I would take the no-pain route to entrepreneurship, but there isnt one.

You must face difficult times to thrive in the good. The difficult times are where you learn.

Every successful sports team has had to endure failure to learn how to win.

That three feet from gold idea scares me into submission every time I feel like giving up.

Had I taken some job, I would never know what I am truly capable of.

Since then, I have found that, as an entrepreneur, I am always three feet from gold. There is always that next thing that I need, that is the perceived needle-mover of my business and life.

That is the beauty of being an entrepreneur. The ride matters.

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Ray is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, and founder of the Six-Figure Author Summit Program. You can reach Ray at https://ray.fm.

By Troy Broussard