Is Your Mindset Crushing Your Divorce Practice?

Most of us started our adult lives as employees, working for others and often large companies with hundreds of employees. Being an employee provides a lot of benefits like security, predictability, health insurance, and let’s not forget the regular, predictable paycheck! As an entrepreneur trying to launch my own divorce practice, it couldn’t be more different.

When I started in finance, I knew next to nothing about the industry. I’m not sure if I could have intelligently told you the difference between a stock and a bond. But I knew that they would train me and I was putting the responsibility for my future in their hands. I knew that as long as I showed up every day and did the job, the paycheck would come in. And the truth is, I didn’t even have to operate at 100%, the check would come anyway.

There were always incentives to perform. We used to call them “the bells”. Every quarter they would announce a new “bell to ring” and if we rang that bell more than our teammates, we would get a bigger bonus. The “bell” might have been offering to set a client up for internet access or showing them how they could do something themselves on our website. Basically, encouraging clients to STOP CALLING US! Because what would that do? Make THE COMPANY more profitable. Ringing the bell would help the company a tremendous amount, and so that I would be motivated to help the company, they would give me a bonus if I did it really well.

So as an entrepreneur, it’s completely different. We have to create our OWN opportunities and self-development. We CREATE the system. We ARE the system. We create something from nothing. We get to start with a concept, turn it into a plan, and then execute on that plan to build our business.

So, about 18 months after I started my business, I found myself looking around my office at the piles of books and materials as I was growing and learning and creating systems and marketing and I realized, wow, I created this! From just an idea, I’ve created this THING! And I realized that my mindset had undergone a significant shift.

As an employee, you look for your employer to invest in your growth with training, guidance and consulting. As an entrepreneur, you have to dig into your own inner resourcefulness, often with a very limited budget, to do what you have to do to advance. That might be finding others to compensate for your weaknesses but also looking for opportunities for growth and development for ourselves. I know that since I left corporate, I read a lot more and study other successful business owners and invest in business coaching programs, etc.

Employees stay in a very reactive place. “I’ll wait until someone or something happens that requires my action and then I’ll take action.” Employees stay within the rules that have been established by the company and operate in that framework. As an entrepreneur, I’m constantly creating my own rules. Can I work from a hotel in Italy? Can I have remote employees that I can delegate tasks to? Can I create streams of passive income so that I’m making money with no activity on my part?

If you lock yourself into perceived rules, you will also cap the amount you can earn because that employee mindset is that you are capable of earning a certain amount of money. But as an entrepreneur, you really do get to decide! Your potential is unlimited!

In our VELOCITY program, we spend a tremendous amount of time focusing on the optimal mindset to foster success – in a big way! If you’re interested in what we’re up to, be sure to come join us at the June Business Blastoff Conference in Arizona! Now is the time to embrace your inner entrepreneur!