Success Isn’t About You
I always thought pursuing a dream was about you, that it
was inherently selfish. But I couldn’t have been more
wrong. It wasn’t until I got everything I wanted in life that I
realized none of it was for me.
“I think it’s time that I move on,” I told my boss of
seven years, who had mentored me for much of that time.
He immediately sat up in his chair, looking at me, not
saying a word. “I, uh . . . well, I think it’s time. The money’s
there. The family support is there. My passion is there. The
only thing that would keep me from doing this is, well, I
wouldn’t want to disappoint you.”
For a moment, he just stared at me without saying
anything. Then finally he spoke up: “Jeff, I’m not
disappointed in you. I’m proud of you. In fact, I’ve been
waiting for this conversation. I’ve seen this coming for a
while. It’s about time you went off and did something on
your own.”
A few months later, I began working for myself. That’s
when the really hard work began. Before leaving my job, I
had saved up enough money to live on for at least six
months, if not a year (but that would have been really
stretching it). The idea was to not have to worry about
income for a while so that I wouldn’t be stressed the first
month on the job. I always wanted to be able to take my
time building a business. But there was just one problem