The Shocking Truth About Success Most Business Owners Ignore

Most people say they want more. More freedom. More fulfillment. More wealth. More impact.

But when life starts throwing distractions, when the day-to-day starts crowding out the dream, something shifts. Purpose becomes a slogan. A vague ideal. A poster on a wall. Not a benchmark. Not a battle cry.

Over the past year, I’ve spoken with hundreds of business owners. Good people. Talented people. People who are capable of doing something extraordinary.

And yet—they’re stuck.

Not because of the market. Not because of their team. Not because they lack potential.

They’re stuck because they haven’t defined a purpose that’s worth suffering for.

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If You’ve Ever Wondered Why You’re Still Stuck…

Let me put it to you this way.

If your child called you in a moment of crisis—if your son or daughter needed you, truly needed you—there is nothing that would stop you from getting to them.

Not traffic. Not your schedule. Not your bank account. Not even fear.

You’d move heaven and earth.

That’s purpose.

But when it comes to our goals? Our vision? Our calling?

We hesitate.

We delay. We tinker around the edges. We say things like, “I just need to think about it a little longer.”

And then we wonder why the needle doesn’t move.

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I Wrote Something I’ve Never Shared Before

At 20 years old, I was sitting in a Zig Ziglar seminar with a couple hundred other people. Zig challenged us to write down our wildest goals—the things we wanted to achieve before age 40.

I took the challenge seriously. I wrote down three things:

1. I wanted to marry a beautiful woman and build a strong family.

2. I wanted to write a New York Times bestselling book—two weeks after failing English composition (again) and being told by my teacher, “You’re as dumb as a box of rocks.”

3. I wanted to have a $10 million net worth.

I didn’t know what $10 million really meant. It just sounded big. Round. Ambitious. My mindset was simple: if someone else could make a million, why couldn’t I make ten?

Those weren’t casual goals. They were vows. I didn’t know the how, but I knew the what.

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At 36, I Woke Up—and Everything Changed

I had the wife. I had the family. But I had let the other two goals drift. I hadn’t written a book.  I wasn’t close to $10 million. And I realized I was living in mediocrity—busy but not fulfilled, successful but not satisfied.

So we made a radical decision.

We sold our half-million-dollar house. Sold everything else we could.

We moved into a rented mobile home in the middle of the woods—holes in the floor, mice in the ceiling, no back siding. We duct-taped our cars together. We canceled every vacation. We stripped life down to the bare minimum.

And we got focused.

Most importantly, I hired a coach. $10,000 a month. $120,000 a year. For four years. No, I wasn’t contributing to my 401(k). Yes, people thought I was crazy. But I knew I needed someone to break my mindset and force clarity.

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What Happened Next?

• I wrote two books. Both became bestsellers. One hit #1 on Wall Street Journal, the other became an international bestseller, translated and sold in over a million copies.

• We reached #56 on the USA Today list.

• We blew past the $10 million net worth goal in just 40 months.

• Recognition came. Awards followed. Other business owners began asking, “Where did this guy come from?”

And I just smiled—because I knew exactly where I came from.

That trailer. That duct tape. That season of sacrifice.

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Why Most Business Owners Stay Stuck

I’ve coached and connected with entrepreneurs who are running teams, building something special, and yet—they’re spinning. They say they want growth. They want more income, more time, more impact. But the moment sacrifice enters the conversation?

They hesitate.

When I tell them I paid $120,000 per year for coaching—they blink. When I say we cut our lifestyle to the bone—they squirm. When I explain we didn’t “balance” life—we prioritized our purpose—they check out.

They want the result. They just don’t want the responsibility.

They want the reward. They just don’t want the discomfort.

No wonder that 77% of people admit they’re not living up to their potential.

It’s not a talent gap. It’s a purpose gap.

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What About You?

Are you lying to yourself? Do you really know what you want? Because if you don’t—if your goals are vague, if your plan is loose, if your actions are delayed—then you’re not living with purpose.

You’re living in drift.

And drift always leads back to the same place: mediocrity.  Scarcity doesn’t start in your wallet. It starts in your mind. You say you want more—but do you want it enough to bleed for it?

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What I’m Seeing Now—and Why It Matters

Today, I’m coaching a handful of business owners who are done playing small.

And what I’m seeing in them is what I had to fight for myself:

• Doubling revenue in under 12 months.

• Reclaiming their passion for business—and for life.

• Getting clear on what matters, and cutting everything else.

• Delegating like never before.

• Building systems that create actual freedom.

• Doubling their net worth in less than 18 months.

Not because I’m a magician. Not because they got lucky. Because they found purpose—and they went all in.

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Final Thought

If you’re content, keep doing what you’re doing.

But if you’re not—if you know you were made for more—then maybe it’s time to stop pretending. Maybe it’s time to get serious.  To get clear. To sacrifice for something that actually matters.

Because when you do?

Even a mobile home can become holy ground.