The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

January 17Make Good Choices

If a person has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of their liberty, if they are really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop them. And the temptation is to some natures a very great one. Liberty is often a heavy burden on a person. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor people have always dreaded. In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take the place of self-determination.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.—Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny (1861)

Owning a business, being an entrepreneur, is either the most freeing perspective available or it's not at all. But the good news is you get to choose.

If you don't feel free at all right now, consider what well-worn justifications you might be using to keep yourself in chains. If only x wasn't a problem, I would finally do y.

It doesn't mean there aren't substantial constraints to your ability to do what you were destined to do—it simply demonstrates that resistance is a strong force.

Deciding to overcome resistance is your most momentous choice. Often it's a choice that involves fear, drama, and courage, and it's also often one many won't make unless pushed, because the habit of justification is too ferocious.

The secret to making the choice that is right for you is to stop living in either the future or the past and to embrace fear as something you can accept in today's version of freedom.

Challenge Question

1. What are you willing to give up ...