Why entrepreneurs stay broke and sad [trigger warning]

Summary

• I created a video from a private community on the mindset shift that contributes significantly to success, titled "Eye of the Tiger and Sustained Victory."
• I believe that hunger and drive are what set apart successful entrepreneurs from those who struggle.
• I've observed that once business owners "make it," their hunger often diminishes, leading to complacency and a halt in business growth.
• To illustrate a lack of hunger, I shared a story about gym owners who had limited new client availability to one hour a day and how this mindset hampers growth.
• Success and continued growth require consistent effort and a willingness to do what is uncomfortable or inconvenient—like being available beyond the hours that are easy for you.
• You need to ask yourself if you're genuinely motivated to achieve more because if you were, you would make necessary sacrifices and changes.
• If you find yourself failing to take actions you know you should, focus on understanding the barriers preventing you from doing so.
• The top performers are those who have a clear focus, exclude distractions, and take direct action towards their goals.
• Your success depends on the depth of your motivation, often driven by insecurities or a fear of failure.
• If your goal is to make just enough to live on, you'll likely only ever make that amount and stop pushing once you reach it.
• You should analyze why you're not hungry for more and figure out why you're not taking the steps you already know are necessary.
• Tactics and strategies are not enough if the drive to execute them is lacking.
• Even knowing how to run a successful business, if you don't execute due to fear of discomfort or effort, you won't achieve your potential.
• Motivation that comes from within, from a desire to be the best or to prove others wrong, is more powerful than motivation driven by momentary success or financial relief.
• You must focus on the process and constant improvement, not just the outputs like revenue numbers.
• To achieve greatness, you must want more than just to satisfy personal or immediate needs; you must aim to have an impact that's larger than yourself.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest starting by taking a hard look at your level of hunger and drive. If you want more growth and success, be honest about your motivation. To light that fire, think about what you're willing to sacrifice. Ask yourself, "Would I work harder and smarter if everything important to me depended on it?"

Here's how to keep that hunger alive and kicking:

1. Extend Your Availability: If your current working hours are limited, like the gym owner's story, it's time to expand. Make yourself available at times when your clients are most likely to need you—even if it's not the most convenient for you.

2. Focus on Actions Over Outcomes: Instead of obsessing over the money you make, zero in on daily actions that lead to success. Are you doing the little things consistently? How can you improve your service every day?

3. Understand Your Barriers: Think about what stops you from doing what you know you should. Work on breaking down these barriers, whether they're mental blocks, a fear of effort, or comfort zones.

4. Find Your Deep Motivation: Successful people often have a powerful internal drive. Is it fear of failure, a need to prove others wrong, or a personal insecurity? Use that to push yourself further.

5. Set Ambitious Goals: Aim for more than just making ends meet. Create goals that push you beyond your comfort zone. Whether it's impacting your community or making a difference on a larger scale, think big.

6. Prioritize Your Time: Direct your time and energy toward actions that significantly impact your goals. Cut out distractions and anything that doesn't contribute to your success.

7. Never Settle: Once you start making enough to be comfortable, don't coast. Constantly ask yourself, "What more can I do?" Keep that hunger alive.

Remember, strategies mean nothing without the will to execute them. Work on building this relentless drive, and you will not only reach your goals but surpass them.

Quotes by Alex Hormozi

"If you're only trying to make enough to live on, you will always only make enough to live on"

– Alex Hormozi

"The real question is: Do you actually want what you claim to want? Because if you did, you’d already have it"

– Alex Hormozi

"If your child was going to die or your spouse or your sister… unless you succeeded, how would you approach it?"

– Alex Hormozi

"You already know what to do. It's just you have to figure out why you're not doing it"

– Alex Hormozi

"No amount of money in the world will satisfy you, and that is what's going to unlock your ability to become greater"

– Alex Hormozi

Full Transcript

video this is a hot take uh that i had when i was uh very very fed up with the amount of people who are failing at life in business um and this is one of the top 300 videos that i released into a private uh community that i had for uh three or four years that were not public um and so i wanted to share the share kind of the best of that community and uh this one was entitled i have the tiger and sustained victory and it was i think a a my chat mind set and perspective shift that will provide significant value to you and i think it will be worth the uh the investment of time to get the the return from it and so uh if you're new to the channel by the way my name is oxford music i iowan acquisition.com it's a portfolio of companies so it's about 85 million a year all right so i make this channel and i make these videos because a lot of people were broke and i don't want to be one of them and so that is why i try and share the lessons and the failures that we've had to get to this point because i think that a lot of people can be more successful if they just had a couple of different tools and frameworks to see the world so lots of love and enjoy the video what i wanted to talk to you about today was i have the tiger so i just had our like a three-day mastermind type thing with the top sellers so two of the three gyms who came here were over seven figures and the other one is gonna probably hit it within the next three months um so it's really it was great because it was a really higher level conversation that i might typically have with i'm entrepreneurs which is fun what we talked about was kind of more amorphous but i think it's incredibly valuable and i think it's probably the the one thing that sets apart the guys who are really winners slash gals who are really winners and the ones who aren't and so it's really just around hunger what i mean by that is recently i had some of our some of our older og gym lords who've been a while you know i mean they they they turn their gym around they've grown they're you know you know close to seven figures or right around there and they've been doing it for a while and they were complaining about show rates they're like hey our show rates are low and um you know you go through the same well you're doing the reminders are you doing all this stuff like yeah we're doing all this stuff okay cool and i dig a little bit deeper and i look and it turns out that they're only open one hour per day at 7 15 a.m for their availability availability for for new clients and i'm like how the [ __ ] do you think that you're going to grow your business if the only time that you can take new customers is that 7 15 am in what world does that make sense right like imagine a grocery store that's only open from seven to 7 30 because that's when it's convenient for the owner what chance do you think that that that grocery store has at succeeding virtually none and so what happens is people have success they implement tactics they use gym watch and then they make money right and then what happens they get comfortable they get complacent right and they lose their hunger like after that point everything like it's almost like i was gonna say like after you after you've like quote made it in your mind and that's what's funny is that making it in some people's mind is like having 10 grand in the bank account so like it's scary in terms of what level of making it is but like once people have made it i almost want to say like none of these tactics matter because you're just not hungry like it doesn't matter like the obvious [ __ ] you aren't doing you know what i mean if your child was going to die or your spouse or your sister together your family member whatever it was was going to die unless you succeeded unless you got more clients unless you made more money with your gym how would you approach it right would you only be available for one hour a day would you only be available from seven to eight a.m would you only set aside an hour a day to prospect for new customers would you only reach out to your customers if they hadn't shown up for a month sometimes people ask questions that they already know the answer to it's like duh no [ __ ] right and and and it goes back to the the main thing which is like what drives you right like what drives you what drives you to be better what drives you to continue to want to win i was asked that question yesterday by the the gym words that were here and i think honestly it comes from a dark place and i think i've said this before but like i'm saying it again because i think people need to hear it sometimes you have to wonder like why is it that only when someone else's life is on the line do you then actually try right like why is it only then you actually cut all the noise out of your life and then would go laser focused on actually succeeding like why can't we do that all the time right like why can't we do that because it's like well then i wouldn't be happy whatever right like whatever happiness means right and so the people who are the most successful in the world are driven by something that is deep inside of them that it's normally an insecurity or a fear of some sort if you're only trying to make enough to live on you will always only make enough to live on and you will slack the moment you get comfortable and you will wonder why is it that as soon as i start making money i stop because you actually don't want to make more that's why you actually don't want to make more and so your internal motivation is not there like because you've accomplished what you set out to accomplish the real question is do you actually want what you claim to want do you actually want it because if you did you'd already have it you'd already you'd already be willing to sacrifice other things in order to achieve it and that might mean like maybe waking up earlier maybe like working 4 to 8 p.m to take sales appointments or whatever that thing is it's just the obvious [ __ ] like if you were coaching you what would you recommend you to do right like a lot of times if you think about like you most of the time know what to do like you do on some level like you probably know that you're like man i do stupid [ __ ] sometimes right you probably think that on some level sometimes right then you're like man if i were if you could step out of yourself and say i need to coach myself you probably have the answer and it's just that you don't do it for some reason and so all of your attention should be on that reason why is it that this thing has prevented me from doing the things that i already know i should do like this last mastermind that i had for the top sellers was really interesting for me because it was the first time that i had no one who had extra [ __ ] i didn't have any like everyone there had really like clean lives outside like really focused and just focused on doing the things that were gonna grow their business the conversations are actually really easy and very direct most times it's like okay well here's the obvious hole in your business but you're not doing anything about it so let's attack why you're not doing anything about it right and so then i have to spend the next hour and a half digging into why they're not doing anything about it which has much more to do with how they manage their head space and how they manage their relationships and how they manage their you know and because what ends up happening is they start focusing on their business their personal life goes to shambles they then are like oh my gosh my personal life is going to shambles i need to stop paying attention to my my business they go to pay attention to their personal life and then the gym explodes right it's just this consistent cycle because they just don't know how to just do both or they don't know how to prioritize those all this to say like it's just like how hungry are you like how willing are you to put in what you need to achieve like and if you're not then that's cool then just to stop stop saying you want it you know i mean just be like i only want to make ten thousand dollars a month that's it it's like cool then just say that and be good with it rather than constantly complaining about how you're not because you're not even willing to do the things that that you already know you should do like right now i get on the phone the gym owners are like i know i should work my leads harder i know i know i should go through the sales trainings more like i know i should you know go through the portal i know i should i know i should meet with my team more i know i should pour my like then why aren't you why aren't you like why like why like i know like i know you have time because other people have time and have the same business as you so you have time so why aren't you because once you have the tactics right and this is one of the biggest the freeing and also most soul-crushing parts of gym launch is that once once once the gym owner joins gym launch you know how to make a seven-figure gym you know how to do it and so then it reflects back onto you it's like oh [ __ ] i'm the reason that we're not there and you have to swallow that right because up until they go to gymlodge people been doing it for five years seven years eight years and they're like i don't know how and then once they see how then they're like oh [ __ ] i'm not sure if i'm willing to do that it's like cool once they know that there is no secret there is no hack it's literally like uh microphones uses the term chopping wood like i call doing the boring work it's like it's chopping what it's reps it's day in day out you got to reach out to people you got to give great service write the handwritten cards like remind people to weigh in you have to work the leads when the person comes in the door you have to be enthusiastic you gotta greet them with a smile you have to ask the same questions over and over and over again because to that person is the first time they've ever heard and it doesn't matter if it's the hundredth time that month you asked the same questions to that person to that person's day one and so if you were trying to be successful do you think that only having availability for sales appointments at 7 15 to 7 45 in the morning once a day is going to get you the optimal outcome do you need a coach to tell you that really you know what i mean like really and and so like or or there was another one that i saw that was like between 9 a.m and 11 am that was their availability hmm good luck with that that's when that's when the people who have the most money are available right nine to one during the week we know what to do right anyone who's in our world like you know what to do it's just you have to figure out why you're not doing it right and then tack that because the tactics aren't the thing anymore right the tactics are there you can read a book and give it away for free right like you can do that but like figure out why you're not hungry figure out why you're not tr like why you're not trying like just figure it out like there might be something inside maybe you don't want more and like you need to discover that it's like okay then like now you know but like if you claim to want more and yet you can't do what's necessary to get more then that's where your attention should go and you should figure that out because otherwise it doesn't matter what tactics there are you're just not going to do them anyways so what's the point so anyways it was incredibly refreshing to have the three guys who were out here uh we had ed turner uh mike great phones so both of those guys have been over you know seven figures uh run rates for a while and doing really really well those guys were just like what do i need to do like because they're like they're clear eyes you know toes forward know exactly what to do and i was like why is it that these meetings are so much easier than some of the other meetings i had and so we've probably spent a little bit of the day kind of digging into that and um it's just a question how bad you want it i really think that's it and like figuring out why you're not doing what you already know you should do in order to achieve it like do you need to go pay someone a bunch of money in order to then get motivated i don't know like hopefully your kid doesn't need to be kidnapped in order for you to get motivated about your business hopefully right and so it's like what what is that thing for me it's just fear it's just fear and insecurity it's fear failing fear of not being good enough fear of people who hated to be right you know what i mean that's what my fear and so i just like that's what drives me it's not about money like it couldn't have been about money because i don't need any more for the rest of my life at all it's like it can't be about that but if it is like about that for you and you feel like when you make your first twenty thousand dollar take a month your first forty thousand dollar take a month your first fifty thousand hundred thousand dollar take a month the first time you hit that like if that's where you're like oh and you feel this big sigh of relief then your motivation is not coming from the right place i'm telling you straight up if you feel relief when you make a lot of money one month your motivation is not coming from the place of a champion if you want to be the best in the world at something that's not going to do anything for you you shouldn't feel anything from that you feel nothing really because it's not about that that's just that's just an output that's an output from internal efforts and should be focused more on the internal efforts and all of the deficiencies that you probably had and still hitting 100k it's like oh my gosh if we hadn't done this this and this we would have been less right and if we had done this in this we would have been more like that's what you're focusing on and you're only focusing on those things and um if you can do that then you'll be able to unlock something inside of you that's much stronger than what might currently be driving you anyways guys hope you have an amazing uh saturday drop a like if you feel like this is cool drop a comment if you feel like it was cool if you don't then that's cool too anyways guys have an amazing day and i will catch you guys soon hopefully that was valuable for somebody who is on the fence who's like not sure about why they can't achieve what they want why they can't be consistent it's because your motivation is not coming from the right place right you're just trying to make enough money to live on and the moment you make enough money you stop working and then you wait for things to blow up again until you try hard again how many times all right i'm going to a second little rant how many times have you needed to make money and then immediately made the amount of money that you needed in like a day in like a week right you need to make payroll i gotta make 10 grand the next three days how do how many times has that happened to you and you always make it work why because you already know what the [ __ ] to do right you just choose not to do it you choose not to do it you choose not to make money when you know how to make money because whenever you need to make money you make it and so that's what you have to attack you have to figure out why when you already know how to make money you don't do it that is the the summary of this entire this entire talk that i was trying to get out of myself is like you already know how to do it when you need to do it you do do it so why aren't you doing it that is what you need to focus on and if you can conquer that piece no amount of money in the world will satisfy you and that is what's going to unlock your ability to become greater and for you to build your business to something that is much greater than yourself because if the only thing that you want to satisfy is you you're going to stay this small i'm going to say this big because to satisfy a single person or a single family doesn't mean a lot right but if you want to satisfy a community you want to satisfy a state you have a satisfying nation you want to satisfy an entire group of people it has to be bigger than you and um and so yeah so anyways uh hopefully that might have resonated with somebody and if it didn't then um i apologize for the extra aggressiveness on this saturday morning um but anyways drop a like drop comment and uh lots of love and i'll catch you guys on the flip side all right