Busting Excuses For Pursuing Freedom
When it comes to committing to a freedom journey, it’s easy to come up with excuses. In fact, there are so many that if I listed them all, I'd never get to the point.
I do, however, want to touch on the major ones. You see, from my experience, making excuses is normally the main reason why people never start, or commence but later quit.
Excuse #1: “I’m too young/old.”
Translation: “I believe achieving freedom is only possible at a certain age.”
If you think you're “too old” or “too young” to pursue freedom, then you want to change your thinking. You're not.
I could go on and on about how, these days, with the internet, the online tools, and the immediate access to millions of people, freedom is possible at any age to anyone who is willing to seek it.
Instead, I’ll just throw out a few names of successful entrepreneurs who got a late or early start.
Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65.
John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at 55.
Ray Kroc started McDonald's at 52.
Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at 19.
Bill Gates started Microsoft at age 19.
Richard Branson started Virgin at 17.
And these are just famous people. If you google very young/old entrepreneurs, a whole list of people comes up.
Jack Delosa, a successful entrepreneur and author, once said, “No one is ‘too old’ or ‘too young’ to pursue their dreams. Entrepreneurship cares not for age. It’s truly about walking a path that is meaningful to you.”
Enough said.
Excuse #2: “I don’t have the knowledge and skills.”
Translation: “I’m too lazy to look for the knowledge and connect with those who have the skills.”
We live in an increasingly connected world in which both knowledge and new skills are literally at our fingertips unlike ever before.
“I don’t have the knowledge and skills” is really an excuse for “I don't really want to.” A wealth of knowledge is out there waiting for you. You just need to look for it and systematically learn each necessary skill.
Now, a word of caution before choosing your knowledge sources. A lot of information can be found fast and easy, but that doesn't mean entrepreneurship is fast and easy.
Building a freedom business requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to invest. You need to possess the courage to try and try again.
In fact, all successful entrepreneurs have one thing in common, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or circumstances.
They never stop trying.
Excuse #3: “I don’t have time.”
Translation: “Freedom isn’t my priority. Sleeping in, watching TV, and browsing Facebook are.”
What we choose to trade our time for says a lot about who we are. Why? Because time is our most precious asset. Unlike financial assets, we can never get it back.
So, if you believe the thought, “I don’t have the time,” what you really believe is, “I don’t value my freedom as a priority.”
Time is a matter of priority, and if FREEDOM is truly important to you, you'll find the time.
Yes, you might have to say goodbye to your favorite TV shows for a while and enter a world of supreme focus, but the reward down the road far outweighs the sacrifice.
In fact, you won’t have to wait for too long; the reward of pursuing your dreams kicks in as soon as you start.
So, prioritization is key, and it works with planning. You’ll have to schedule freedom in time slots, and then protect those slots like a dragon guarding treasure.
Your whole time strategy can be summarized in these 3 P’s:
Prioritizing.
Planning.
Protecting.
Excuse #4: “Starting a business is risky.”
Translation: “I’m afraid to invest time and energy in my dreams.”
The common belief in society is that starting a business is extremely risky. While this might be true with some physical businesses, it is not as true with online businesses.
Starting an online business does not require having a large savings account, expensive office, or permanent employees. The investment is far smaller than most people imagine. In fact, the only big risk is not following your dream.
What’s more, not starting a side business can actually be risky. Think about it. When you’re dependent on a job as your sole source of revenue, you’re putting your fate in the hands of one person: your boss.
Not only that, the world is changing. No job is secure anymore. And the older we get, the more rapid economic changes we can expect.
On this point, Scott Gerber, author and successful entrepreneur, expresses the urgency: “How much longer are we going to disillusion ourselves into believing that globalization, automation and the over-abundance of educational institutions haven’t forever changed our world?”
It’s time to take more control of our lives.
Excuse #5: “I don’t have money.”
Translation: “It takes money to make money.”
Yes, money can help when starting out, but it's your relationships, skills, knowledge, and attitude that are your real capital. As mentioned before, money is the effect, rather than the cause, of wealth.
As a matter of fact, one relationship is often all you need to generate income and lay the foundation of a business.
You can, for example, offer one of your friends or colleagues in need your services, or offer a developer friend of yours a percentage of profit in return for his development work. That’s how I got started myself.
Moreover, the truth is that you don’t need to be a millionaire to achieve freedom. For most people, a few thousands or even hundreds of dollars each month, earned online, can mean freedom.
Put differently, you don't have to accumulate a large sum of money and wait for years and years to attain freedom.
It can happen next year.
Excuse #6: “I don’t have a unique idea.”
Translation: “I need to create the next Facebook in order to be successful.”
When most people think of entrepreneurship and businesses online, they think of super-innovative startups like Facebook and Google.
The truth is that you don’t need to create the next Facebook in order to be successful.
You don’t even need to have a unique idea…
You just need to do things slightly differently and slightly better.
Here’s the thing: competition is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's probably a good thing because it's another indication of market demand.
The key is to give your prospective audience a reason to choose your business over your competition. And sometimes one good reason is enough...
* To gain more inspiration and motivation for your personal growth journey, I recommend visiting my SMART goals page, which offers a wide range of goal ideas to help you establish new aspirations and achieve greater success in life. This list was crucial in the development of my own life goals list, consisting of 100 goals that I pursued for ten years.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
