Million Dollar Micro Business

21Ditch the guilt

If you haven't been there, the thought of someone feeling guilty for being successful can make you feel like you've bought a ticket to crazy town. I want to talk about this because it's highly probable that at some stage this feeling will hold you back from achieving greater success, and when it happens it can be very confusing. If you don't recognise it when things start to flow easily, then rather than embracing your success you can sabotage it, because it seems too good to be true so you move back down to being over-busy and unproductive.

If you've battled through life, fought and tried hard for a long time, success can ironically make you feel uncomfortable. Working less feels strange. You have this niggling feeling that you're missing something.

This syndrome is especially prevalent in women. We feel pangs of guilt, like we're somehow cheating people if we make a good profit. We have centuries of social conditioning to thank for this messing with our minds. We're told things like, ‘Don't get a big head’, ‘Don't think you're better than everyone else’, ‘Why do you feel you deserve all that money?’ and ‘Who's looking after the children when you're at work all the time?’

Traditionally women have done most of the unpaid work and unrecognised ‘domestic’ work. When Mat decided to become a stay-at-home dad while my business was taking off, people close to him would ask how he was still going to feel like a man when he wasn't providing for his family. Deeply ...