Channelone.TV: Confessions from the Golden Hamster Wheel

Friday, August 1, 2014

Confessions from the Golden Hamster Wheel

Chapter 3 of the Great American Entrepreneur Story?

Liberation Seminar Day One

Participate at No Charge

Mel,

How does Chapter One of your version of "The Great American
Entrepreneur Story" read?

For me it was...

Drank the Amway Pink Kool-Aid.

Punched the clock in the Dilbert Cube, played the office politics
and suffered under a boss who wanted to cut my fingers off one
knuckle at a time.

I scurried through those mazes long enough to realize there wasn't any cheese to be found there. No matter how fast I ran. No matter how brilliantly I strategized. No cheese.

And fortunately, I escaped.

If you've done the same, congratulations.

End Chapter 1 of the "Great American Entrepreneur Story".

How does Chapter 2 read?

If yours reads like mine, it goes something like this...

You've busted out of the maze only to find yourself still stuck on a hamster wheel.

You've got a better view than you had in the maze. Basics like
your daily cheese are no longer a worry. Maybe it's even a golden hamster wheel with shiny rims and leather interior, but it's still a hamster wheel.

If you stop running, the wheel grinds to a halt. The cheese stops
dropping from above. The water bottle dries up.

My confession: I'm still on the golden hamster wheel. Stuck in Chapter 2.

Every month I have to pull a rabbit out of my hat to make my nut.
Every week I give in to the insistent urge to redouble my efforts and make things work through sheer effort and will power.
Every day I still answer to the to-do list and the tyranny of the urgent.
A quick glance at my jam-packed calendar will tell you that "Mr. 80/20 Sales & Marketing" has a long way to go before he reaches Chapter 3 of the story.

And what does Chapter 3 even look like?

Great question. Most entrepreneurs don't realize there is a Chapter 3. We always thought Chapter 2 was the end of the book, with maybe a short epilogue titled "Retirement" tacked on at the end.

But that's not how your story has to end.

There is a Chapter 3 that you can write. I've read it. I know what it looks like.

It looks like what I saw in southern Spain when I visited Richard Koch.

(I'll tell you more about that next time.)

But for now I'll tell you this...I want my Chapter 3 to read like what I saw in Spain. And if you're stuck in Chapter 2 like me, you should do everything in your power to grasp the vision of "Chapter 3".

The best way to do that is to participate in Day One of the Liberation Seminar with Richard Koch in Chicago, September 28.

And you can participate at no charge with your Mastermind 12 membership.

Get the details here.