Gino
Welcome to the Shed and Shine podcast. I am Gino Wickman. This is where Rob Dube and I help driven entrepreneurs shed their shit, free their true selves, unlock true entrepreneurial freedom, and shine. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and we hope to make a huge impact on you.
Rob
Hey, everyone. My name is Rob Dube, and I am here with Gino Whippen.
Gino, how are you today? Fantastic, Rob. How are you? Doing great. Doing great. Excited for today's topic because we're going to discuss reasons entrepreneurs don't make it. Now, this one is another one that came from our integrator, also named Rob, and I'm loving it.
He asked, hey, could you could you do one called something like Built to Fail? Reasons that entrepreneurs don't make it. So what I would like to do here, if it's okay with you, is I, I want to share some thoughts that came to mind for me, and then we could pick up with anything that's coming to mind for you. So first, I just wanted to say from my own standpoint, I felt that failure I feel that failure is a strong word. Now I thought a lot about this and I feel like failure carries a lot of weight for some entrepreneurs. True that were coming to my mind were more questions than answers. I'm sure no surprise to you.
But things like, what is the deeper truth behind what causes entrepreneurs to fail? How come they aren't aware enough to address these issues before they fail? And as I've said before, one of the best ways to learn about yourself is to know Self, is what we say in the 10 disciplines. And if you wanna know thyself, let me tell you something. Become an entrepreneur. Being a driven person can sometimes blind a person to the idea that they may fail. So, Gino, I thought you've I think you probably have some thoughts coming up here. But one thing I hope we can discuss is, is failing a bad thing and on a deeper level, is there such a thing as failure?
It's coming up. Wow. What's going on in there?
Gino
I had no idea where this one was gonna go. So I'll I'll, just zoom out to some context on this one. Okay? Because I wanna I wanna set some things to the side that are obvious. Okay? And so I would suggest 3 things. We're gonna assume you've got a great product or great service. Okay? So let's just say if your product is terrible and your service or your service is terrible, you're going out of business.
So you're going to fail. Let's let's let's remove that. Okay? So let's that's like table stakes. Okay? And then if you're undercapitalized, okay, you're probably going out of business, so let's set that aside. We don't need to talk about that today.
And if you're not an entrepreneur, you're probably gonna fail. And so I wrote a book called Entrepreneurial Leap, then do a check up on Self. You need to be a driven entrepreneur. You need to have the soul of a driven entrepreneur to succeed. So those True things are nonnegotiable. And so if you come to me and say, hey, my product is terrible, I'm completely undercapitalized, and I'm not an entrepreneur, can you give me some advice on my business? The advice is gonna be really simple.
So let's pretend, I'll bring all those back. You have the DNA of a driven entrepreneur, you've got a great product or service, and you are capitalized. Mhmm. Now let's look at how the business might fail, because with those three things, you're still most more likely to fail than succeed.
How about that? What a world we live in. So I would urge everyone listening to listen to our previous episode, you know, so 2 episodes ago, I think it is. And and talking about toxicity and dysfunction in the workplace because we hit all the reasons you're gonna fail around toxicity and dysfunction. So I don't wanna I'm gonna try not to repeat, but there's a lot of things there. And then, you know, the the it makes me think about the outer world reasons why you fail and the inner word world reasons why you fail, and I think we'll bounce back and forth between both of them. So all that said, my jumping off point would be, if you have trauma and pain and blocked energy in you around failure and you fear failure, you're going to make some really bad decisions because that fear of failure is leading you.
And it's ironic, you're actually more likely to fail with fear of failure. How about that? Where a lot of people would think, woah, no. My fear of failure drives me. We've learned, not true. When you shed the ego, shed the layers, shed the trauma, and come from your intuition and soul and true self first, you will make better decisions, I. Intuition True soul and true self first, you will make better decisions, I. E. Increase your odds of succeeding.
So there's kind of my jumping off point
Rob
for sure. So, you know, I want to go back to this question I posed on a deeper level. So you'll probably keep bringing us back up, which is always a good idea. I tend I tend to want to, you know, be philosophical, but, you know, this deeper level of failure. And I think you started to hit on it there, around, you know, shedding. And I'm thinking to myself, if we have open hearts in our in our minds are open fully, we see everything that happens in our life as divine. So why I'm saying this is, in other words, we're making decisions with the facts we have at that moment.
Because we took all the other factors out with Gino's context, and sometimes those decisions with those facts we had lead us to great successes and other times failures. And even saying that seems to designate what one means over the other, but those are just words. So basically, I'm conveying that these outcomes don't require a definition. They are just what is happening in the moment. Alright.
Gino
That's so rough. You. So you're not losing me.
You're I I love it. Keep going.
Rob
So you go down these paths. Rob. You go down this path and you're like, oh my god.
I'm failing or I failed. I'm but then some new spark happens, and you go this way. You take a right turn over here. And then the next thing you know, it's 5 years later, and you're a big conventional success. You that you have a new business product, whatever it was you shifted. You you you you made it, you know, you made that change. You got some new people, whatever the case was.
And guess what? Had it not been for that, what I will call experience, which you were calling a failure, you'd still be in a mediocre business, not failing or succeeding by conventional, just miserable. And so I I'm bringing this up because I think there's so much value in the mindset around that. Okay. What's coming up for you? I gotta shut up.
Gino
Somebody no. But don't shut up because it's it's it's good. I I love when you, go deep as well. So a few things. So just follow me on this because it's gonna sound like I'm pulling away from what you're saying, but I'm coming right back to what you're saying.
Rob
I do.
Gino
I do. Because again, mister context over here, I wanna I feel the need to explain why I always go to context. Okay? Because these issues that we talk about, the granular issues, the specific issues, I've seen a 100,000 of them, and there are these common threads, and I just see all the common threads. So I take us to context because context solves 99% of all of those symptomatic issues. Context is going to the root of the problem. So just I I I feel the need to say that because, you know, if and so then I thought of a funny example, you know, so if we're gonna go into the granular reason of why Sally in sales remind you of your mother, so therefore you won't confront Sally, like, we could so we could talk about that, but that's like minor in the grand scheme of you gotta solve your issues with your mom, and then your issues with Sally will be solved.
So hopefully that made sense. But so what you're saying, what that meant to me is, you know, what is failure?
Because I it's so Rob. So Rob. Because, you know, is failure really failure? Because every failure is a lesson. Right? And I think that's where you're going with this, and it's a complete mind shift. Because because losing your business, you feel like it's the end of the world and you're going to die.
But when I think about how I lost all of my money True times and how all the times that I failed, every single one of them was a learning experience. And, sadly, some of them had to happen 3, 4, 5 times in a row until I finally learned the lesson. So so, you know, failure is a learning experience. I think life puts these things in front of us to learn and grow, so I think that's on point, but I wanna say one other thing. And then what the other funny thought that came to me is, you know, so when you start your business and you grow it to a million, hypothetically, you had so many little failures, you bumped your head so many times, but you won. I mean, you built a $1,000,000 company, and it's like you are now, like, in the 1 tenth of 1 percent of the world. But now there's a new set of issues.
So now you're gonna grow your business from a 1,000,000 to 10,000,000, and it's a whole another set of issues. And again, we don't have to get into all those, but it made me laugh because, you know, all of a sudden, what's the definition of success? Because what's the definition of failure?
What's the definition of success? And then all of a sudden, now you get to 10,000,000. Now you have this amazing $10,000,000 company, and you're making at least $1,000,000 a year, and you got a hell of a lifestyle. All of a sudden that presents a whole other set of issues and challenges. Now shoot forward in True, you socked away a bunch of that money, and now you have a net worth of $10,000,000. You're financially independent. That creates a whole another set of issues.
So it's like, my experience, the issues never stop, the challenges never stop, the failures never stop, and so they're all just learning and growing experiences. And what you think is avoiding failure and achieving success is like just getting to the next level of a whole bunch of new problems. So how's that for a mind fuck?
Rob
Well, I mean, you know, the whole reason that I shouldn't say the whole reason, but a big part of what we're doing here is saying you can be driven and have inner peace. So we don't wanna take away your drive. Mhmm. And I wanna share a couple scenarios that came. I made them up, but you might have heard some of this already. You might have heard, you know, some earlier in this podcast where you're going, yeah. Yeah. I know. I know.
I failed as a lesson. I get it. I've heard that a 1000000 times in a 1000000 different ways. I don't need you guys to tell me. But here, I just wanna give you a couple of scenarios, and then you can think about these. You can ponder on these out there. Okay. So here's scenario number 1.
Driven entrepreneur, you bust your ass to build an empire and you do. So you must be successful, you must not be failing. Right? Self, along the way, you weren't fully present with your family, you missed out on all kinds of events, and you chalk it up to wanting to provide a better life for your family than what you had. Are you successful, or did you fail? You end up divorced and your kids are disconnected from you. They all have their comforts.
You've given them everything in 10 times more than what you ever had. But there isn't the kind of deep love for each other. And so as a result, you're spiraling, and guess what? Now you're really successful company begins to implode, and you ultimately end up file filing for bankruptcy. Okay. Took that to a really dark place, but where's the success and the failure on that? Let me give you one more.
Driven entrepreneur, that's you, bust your ass. But you're disciplined. And this time, you clearly understand your priorities. You're building a solid business, not necessarily an empire, but it's a solid friggin' business. You have one hell of a comfortable life. It's really, really Dube. Better than what you had.
But nothing necessarily extravagant. You are fully present with your family. You're home for dinner 90% of the True, not checking your phone, not mind distracted. You rarely miss miss events. Okay. So you aren't as financially comfortable as you were in the other scenario before you went bankrupt, But the material stuff maybe wasn't as important to you in this scenario. Maybe it is important to you. That's okay.
Nothing wrong with that. Bottom line is there's lots of love in the family, and you feel it all the time when you're around them.
So where's the success? Where's the failure there?
I'm not sure. It's for you to decide. I'm just posing the questions for you to consider.
Gino
I love it when you get passionate. So, thank you for that. And I this I wanna go back to something you said about lessons. You said it so well, and it's what I experienced for 20 years because I would keep hearing that. You know? Every failure is a lesson. Every fail and I thought that was such bullshit because I don't have time to learn a lesson.
I'm killing Self, trying to be a great husband and father and businessman and friend. I don't have time to stop and reflect on that thing that I just screwed up or failed at, so there's no time. So that was my thinking, but it's a light bulb moment for me now, and it's just in the last few years, they are all learning experiences. And to the degree, we can look back and learn, there's something for us to learn. Now the story you shared about that entrepreneur that gets to the top of the mountain as we call it successful, that was me. So remember my story at 52, I'm sitting there celebrating my success, got to the top of my achieved everything I wanted to achieve, and it's like, woah, the universe hit me over the head with the sledgehammer, and that was my awakening because there was so much pain inside.
How was that success? And I was not present with my family as present as I could be. They didn't see it as extreme as I did. Thank goodness. But I just I was a failure internally. I was a success enter externally. So right.
What's the definition? But here's the thing I wanna throw out there is in everything that you said, in that example of, you know, in so many words you're saying, you're killing yourself to build a $20,000,000 business and sacrificing everything in your life. What if it were a $10,000,000 business and everything in your life was perfect and healthy and peaceful and normal? That I think almost anyone would trade that off. But what I wanna throw in there is if you find peace, I believe there's a chance you can turn it into a $40,000,000 company and still have all of that, and it's more likely that that is what will happen, and you won't be able to stop it because you will be shining so bright. You will be so healthy. You will have attracted so many amazing people that are going to do 90% of the heavy lifting for you because they're so passionate about the company that shines your company that shines.
So I'll just throw that little nugget in there food for thought. But somewhere between 10 40, if everybody loves you and it's peaceful and healthy, that ain't so bad.
Rob
What have I what I've experienced in my work with these driven entrepreneurs is many believe they're very self aware, but I'm noticing they really aren't. And so, you know, first, this goes to the work in shine. And I'm I'm encouraging you here, a little mini plug, go to the book, reread the book, go to discovery number 2, decisions are made from love or fear because you'll go and I want you to go down to level 4, the awareness level. It's important to bring out the awareness of what type of decision that you're making and if it's coming from fear, you are blocked and you can unblock that. And that helps you, I believe have more inner peace, make better decisions and reduce what you may have as what you may believe is a failure. And, Gino, one thing I was wondering about, and I'm curious in your experience if you've noticed this, does fear of failure actually, in many ways, prevent entrepreneurs from making the great decisions that they need to make to move forward?
So it, like, has a reverse effect on them, and they end up sticking with the status quo instead of challenging Selves. Yeah.
Gino
And and so I I literally said that, you know, 7 and a half minutes ago. I said your fear fear of failure is gonna lead you to make bad decisions that make you more likely to fail. So yes yes yes to your question.
Rob
100%. Do you fear failure?
Gino
Not anymore.
Rob
But you used to.
Gino
Oh, no. For there's no question. There's absolutely no question. And the root of the fear of failure was what people would think of me. It was always about worrying about Thank
Rob
you for that.
Gino
How people judged me. And as soon as I stopped giving a shit what people thought about me, it just all It didn't matter.
All went away. Now there are other routes to fear of failure, but that was my main one because certainly, safety and security is another driver that was something that was driving me, and I thought that there was a number in a bank account that would make me feel peaceful and safe. And when I hit that number, I didn't feel peaceful and safe, and then when I hit the next number, and then when I doubled that, it didn't and when I doubled that, it didn't get there. So lots of other stuff. But the biggie was what will people think if I fail?
Rob
Yeah. And I'm right there with you. I felt the exact same way for so many years, and I had to do so much work around understanding what it was that was going on that I was so afraid to fail. And honestly, some of the things that came up to me, which I'll share right now, are I didn't want my parents to see me as somebody who couldn't do it. You know, one of my parents would always say, when are you gonna, go get a regular job with benefits and a retirement program for 10 years? And I wanted to show them something. I could not fail, but I was miserable for so many parts of that.
The other is I never felt like I belonged in an entrepreneur community, and I wanted to show other entrepreneurs that I could be like them, super successful. And then I learned that they were just being the same way I was being. So I was there on the same club. Yeah. So those True some of the things that I really had to shed to, you know, not be so concerned with the idea that of failure.
Gino
Yeah. You're prompting a couple really interesting things. Reminds me of how I was never able to talk to anybody about any struggles I was experiencing in business because they would view me as a failure. And, like, I think about now, shoot forward, like, when we were really struggling with sales and marketing, I so freely when somebody says, how's 10 Disciplines doing? You know, I say, we're struggling with sales and marketing. I could never utter those words 10 years ago when when I was struggling with sales and marketing and we were with EOS Worldwide and somebody asked me what's going on, I'd go, oh, everything's great. Oh my god.
Here's all the great things. I I I could never share the bad because I feared their judgment, thought they would think I was a failure. So for what that's worth. And and then I just I wanna throw our if we're coming into the home stretch Yeah. I wanna throw what I will call bonus material in here, but this is coming up for me for some reason, and it's all in everything we Dube. But the thought that came to me for you as the driven entrepreneur out there is a great exercise to understand how you are being and with your people, is to think about the last meeting that you were in or at least the next meeting you're in, and ideally with your leadership team, but with anybody. It could be a sales presentation, whatever it is, but but reflect on that meeting and float up above the meeting and replay you in the meeting.
And it's a very powerful exercise to see how you are showing up and how you are being, and there will be lots of ahas and learning opportunities to go to the roots of some of your stuff, shed it, free it, and be even better for your people and those people in that meeting going forward, those people in those meetings going forward. So for what that's worth.
Rob
Love it. Good ending point. Thank you for that, Gino. Well, thanks for listening. As always, we greatly appreciate your time, and we'll see you next time. But in the meantime, stay focused and much love.
Gino
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, if you'd like to see where you are on your true self journey, go to shed and shine podcast.com to take the true self assessment and receive personalized guidance. If you're all ready to begin your inner world journey with Rob and myself, please join us for the next round of the 10 disciplines group coaching program. We wish you all the best in freeing your true self. Stay focused and much love.
