Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT)

As an evolutionary hunter, your body is preprogrammed and hypersensitive to being in fight or flight mode. This has served our small portion of the human tribe for millennia. Our ability to be on-alert, aware and hyper-vigilant has allowed us to thrive and successfully hunt for the rest of the human tribe.

The challenge we face today is that fight or flight is meant to be a temporary state. This evolutionary process boosts our systems into overdrive and after a temporary lift across the board, we begin to crash. When we live in fight or flight, we tax our adrenals and thyroid, we throw our hormone balance off, and we can become exhausted and depleted. The environment we live in today exposes us to levels of stress and complicated toxins never before seen in the history of human beings.

There is a near epidemic of entrepreneurs with adrenal fatigue, thyroid issues, hormone challenges, and more. We understand how to shift our bodies out of a fight or flight mode, everything in our lives can get easier. The surprise for most is just how easy it is to accomplish this.

I simplify everything I can when it comes to communicating with entrepreneurs. When it comes to people like us, we want information fast, concise and in a way that can be remembered.

One simple equation I share with all my private clients is Responsibility/Blame or responsibility over blame. This simple equation applied correctly, will help you create momentum and propel yourself forward in ways you can't see otherwise. Applied incorrectly, it can create constraint.

Every entrepreneur I have worked with has been to a period of time in their lives with a didn't have enough resources, we're short on time, and have the cards stacked against them but still came through. For many of us, this is in fact where we defined and created our lives.

This is why so many of us put up with being uncomfortable for far too long. There's a difference between being vulnerable, and uncomfortable. When you stop allowing yourself to be uncomfortable, you will have an easier time being vulnerable.

When it comes the vulnerability entrepreneurs are getting it wrong. We are taught "never let them see you sweat" or "fake it until you make it" Both of which will keep you start and stop you from getting what you need.

Even worse they will stop you from one of the most important entrepreneurial assets that you can create, human connection. As an entrepreneur connection to your tribe, to the market at large, and your team will help you create momentum. Lack of connection will make it difficult for you to create momentum and long-term success.

This week I was reminded by Natalie Hodson that vulnerability is the ultimate human connector.

If you are anything like me, you can have 100 things go right, one go wrong and you will consistently remember the one. In all my years as a consultant, there is one meeting I remember over and over. I got called out by my client in a very embarrassing way and I will never forget it.

It makes sense we have a hard time letting go of terrible meetings, lost deals, being called out, or even just being embarrassed. All of these situations expose us, make us feel vulnerable and can even make us feel at risk.

We are Evolutionary Hunters, mistakes used to kill us. We are programmed to play all out and we all know sometimes it feels like life and death. This obsession over what went wrong is an ancient survival instinct that has served people like us for millennia. In order to stop the obsession over where we missed, we have to proactively create a new perspective for ourselves.

The first public venue where I shared the Entrepreneurial Personality Type content was at Joe Polish's Genius Network. Joe's mastermind is famous for its 10-minute talks, this one was 12. That was a major mistake, especially at Genius and I apologized repeatedly to Joe afterward. It must have worked because this presentation got me invited to speak at the Genius Network annual event alongside Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, and John Paul Dejoria. Here are the 12 minutes that launched the EPT.

In 2011 Cadey and I discovered that a person we trusted for years had been embezzling from us. Michael Goldberg was our contract CFO, advisor and even was the trustee on our wills. He was one of the most trusted people in our lives. It was devastating to find out he had embezzled over a million dollars from us and had misdirected over a million more. Once we discovered his crime, we contacted the US Secret Service and what followed was two of the most stressful years of our lives...

One of the 10 attributes of the Entrepreneurial Personality Type is 'Drive for Gained Advantage'.

The ancient voice that keeps evolutionary hunters constantly asking "how do I get ahead?" This is one of the strongest drives we have and can often overrule our better judgment.

I feel lucky that early in my career as a consultant I saw the repercussions of situational ethics and was sufficiently scared to always think twice when money was too easy.

This is a story from my years as a consultant that I have never told publicly before.

Over 20 years ago on one of my first major consulting trips, I had one of the most awkward moments I have ever had in a hotel.

I did, however, learn a lot about successful people and an incredible travel hack...

As entrepreneurs we have heard this expression so many times our mind finishes the sentence for us, "you become the average of the five… people you spend the most time around."

This never sat well with me. I always knew there was something wrong with this statement. In principle, it sounded good and I heard it from so many people so many different times, it seemed like it was just accepted fact.

Early in my career, I had a chance to work with some of the most successful people in the world, and I can tell you that this statement simply isn't true. The billionaires that I worked with did not hang around with five equally as successful billionaires. In fact, mathematically it would be impossible for one person to become riches in the world because he wouldn't have had at least two people who were richer than him to bring up his average.

I thought about this for a long time, because it didn't feel like it was treated in this statement. Then it hit me one day…

We don't become the average of the five people we spend the most time around, we become the average of the five people we learn the most from.