I still have to guard against living in Survival Mode sometimes.
After being an entrepreneur for 10 years, you would think I would know better. But I am human. Humans fall back into bad habits in moments.
Largely though, I left Survival Mode a while back because I stopped living day to day and began living from an abundant energy with a clear vision of the future.
What Is Survival Mode?
Survival Mode is devoting most energy to covering your basic needs. No entrepreneur living in Survival Mode has a vision of a bright, prospering future. Survivors live their day largely just to get by today.
Most employees live in Survival Mode because most of these folks give most energy to paying for lodging, food and covering health care too.
Human beings do not feel happy living in Survival Mode because we are engineered to be infinitely more than animals living on instinct alone. Humans have a consciousness. You and I have free will. We can choose to live a life beyond covering basic survival needs.
Successful entrepreneurs absolutely need to leave Survival Mode behind because you cannot prosper vibing from a dominant energy of fear. Vibing love, abundance and generosity is the way to be a happy, prospering entrepreneur.
Why Does Leaving Survival Mode Precede Success?
Most of humanity vibes from a dominant energy of fear. Fearing the loss of food, lodging and money, most people work a job mainly to secure food, lodging and money.
Thriving entrepreneurs work with no immediate financial return. Successful business owners work generously and abundantly, letting go the fear of losing money or the fear of wasting their time.
I know of a 7 figure blogger who made less than $700 after working incredibly generously for an entire year. Now he makes a lot more money than 700 bucks annually. Be generous and patient. Your pay day awaits.
Leaving Survival Mode makes you shine brightly in a world laden with fear, lack, limitation and poverty. Do you see how Tony Robbins built a massive, loyal, rabid following? He vibes from such a high vibe of love, abundance and generosity that his light allows him to be seen by millions of humans who seek the light. Worldly success found him because he lived to thrive, not just to survive.
Meanwhile, most people emit a dim, scared, Survival Mode energy, giving most of their attention to ensuring they have enough food, shelter and money to survive. Perhaps this crowd boosts their savings but fears touching their stash for 10, 20 or 40 years, until they are 65. Americans even developed the insane habit of proudly stacking up months of unused vacation by retirement. Unfortunately, you cannot add vacation days to your lifetime after retiring. The days only go down, folks.
Be Generous, Abundant and Trust
Build a business around your passion. Make the work, the reward.
Generously help people to improve your skills and to increase your exposure. Money will not arrive for a while. Trust in the process. Do not panic.
Eventually, your massive exposure and highly developed skill set yields steadily growing then immense financial profits. Business hums along beautifully. But only if you left Survival Mode years prior. Nobody builds a thriving, lasting business trying to squeeze as much money out of each day as possible.
Thrive. Do not survive.
Leave Survival Mode behind to become a prospering, happy entrepreneur.
Love this, Ryan. I think many people think that being an entrepreneur is like having a job and money will flow on day one. Not the way it works in most cases like you said unless they already have a client base built, which is why I generally never recommend quitting your day job until you can survive for a bit without more cash coming in. When you are desperate, it leads to doing stupid stuff which pushes away your potential customers.