“When your back is against the wall you can either lay there or spring up. The choice is yours.”
-Jared Yellin
Personal responsibility is the greatest lesson that entrepreneurs learn VERY quickly…
“It’s up to me.”
I remember sitting in my tiny apartment in Fort Lee, NJ when I launched SYNDUIT and realizing that my entire present and future were in my hands.
There was no one I could blame...
There was no one coming to help…
There was no one to turn to…
If it was going to be...
It’s up to me.
And as much as this lesson is a prerequisite to making it as an entrepreneur, it’s also an essential element of everyday life.
Far too many people turn their happiness over to someone other than themselves...
Far too many people turn their health over to someone other than themselves...
Far too many people turn their love over to someone other than themselves...
Your happiness, your health, your love, and your success is YOURS to make or break, but it’s YOURS.
That’s the key!
But here’s where personal responsibility is truly the make or break…
When your back is against the wall…
You feel knocked down…
You feel exhausted…
You feel defeated…
The ONLY way out is to own your circumstances, use your situation as your driving force, and take personal responsibility until you rise up, grow, accelerate, and reach the next level.
“The software development firm I hired is the reason I ran out of money.”
In 2013, I was dominating in the SYNDUIT ecosystem…
We took off financially…
Our team was on fire…
The greatest clients were hiring our firm…
AND…
I could not make payroll!
WTF?!?!
My reality was the following…
We were pivoting SYNDUIT to a SaaS platform and I was funding it through SYNDUIT’s cash flow and the software development was taking 3x the amount of time and money we allocated.
I was not prepared for the delays and the company began to REALLY feel it…
Well, maybe not the company, but I sure was.
The pressure I was under was unimaginable and it came on VERY quickly.
I could have easily remained knocked down and given all my power to someone other than myself for the current situation, but instead, I defaulted to those few words which initially surfaced when I was in my tiny apartment in Fort Lee.
“It’s up to me.”
I was $500,000 short which might sound like a ton of money, but the reality was this…
I was $500,000 between where I was and where I know I needed to go in order to impact millions of lives…
“It’s up to me.”
“It’s up to me.”
“It’s up to me.”
I kept on reciting these four words over and over and then it hit me…
I created a 4-week bootcamp to help small business owners learn how to build and implement an Annual Marketing Plan for $497. I launched it on a Tuesday and by the following Tuesday we had 1,124 people sign up and paid in full.
More than $500,000 was earned…
But the money was meaningless compared to the learning experience…
What I gained in that moment was the POWER to realize that…
“It’s up to me.”
And And And…
I am NO different than YOU!
I have no superhuman ability to take personal responsibility…
I have no genetic advantage to help me use human ingenuity to solve a problem…
I have no special DNA that enables me to think creatively when challenges emerge…
But what I am able to do is the following…
1 - Find the ONE thing that is standing in between where I am and where I want to be.
2 - Attach EXTREME impact to getting to where I want to be.
3 - Try a variety of ideas to see which will GET ME to where I want to be.
4 - NEVER quit until I get my outcome.
Once again, you CAN and MUST do this if you want your outcome as badly as I want mine…
And remember this…
“It’s up to me.”
I believe in you!
Live with Intention,
