Books Unwound

Posts Tagged ‘limiting beliefs’

This is part of an in depth review of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, by Mike Michalowicz.  This book is about being an entrepreneur and starting and running a successful business. I will focus on 1 section at at time and distill the best information to help your business now.  This should not be considered a replacement for the actual book, which will usually have a lot more in depth information as well as stories, which are an important way to communicate the essentials.  If you find the information in these posts helpful, I recommend buying the book.

Getting anywhere with your business is difficult work. Limiting beliefs just make it harder. How can you expect to be successful if you keep telling yourself that you can’t? Mike Michalowicz refers to the beliefs that hold us back from achieving success in business as “the wall of limiting beliefs.”

Basically, anything you believe that will stop you from reaching a goal is like a wall in your path to achieving that goal. You may want to get your products into grocery stores, but you have convinced yourself that you don’t know how to approach the buyers. This is a limiting belief that will stand in the way of achieving your goal until you can overcome it.

I call these limiting beliefs “The Wall.” The Wall is insurmountable and is more powerful than any physical barrier could ever be. There is no method of knocking it down or destroying it other than to vanquish The Wall by creating a channel of enabling beliefs.

Michalowicz goes on to make a point about when the wall is overcome. In my example of the business trying to sell to a grocery store, it may seem that the wall is overcome when the person receives a referral and signs up one small chain. But the wall doesn’t go away. In fact, it is reinforced, because that person still believes he cannot reach out to a buyer unless he can get more referrals.

The only way to deal with the limiting belief is to find a way around it with what Michalowicz calls an enabling belief.

An enabling belief looks at what has been limiting you and then uses that as a starting point for action. In the book, Michalowicz uses the example of not having enough money to market effectively as a limiting belief. Not dealt with, this could cause the business to fail before it ever got started. He suggests an enabling belief to combat this. That belief is that you have no money, which enables you to focus on creative marketing strategies and gives you the power to learn how to market your product better than any competitor.

Any limiting belief can be turned on its head. You just need to learn to see the positives of your current position. For my own grocery store example, the person might say that he does not know how to reach out to buyers, but he does know how to reach out to consumers. He can then put together a promotional package which has consumers asking the grocery store if it carries the product. This can roll into a presentation package for grocery stores that includes video testimonials of happy consumers.

It may take a couple of tries, but you can come up with enabling beliefs to combat any of your limiting beliefs. This will make it possible for you to navigate around all the walls that currently stand between you and your goal.

This is not a magic trick. Chances are you might make a little progress, and then revert back to old beliefs. Michalowicz refers to the new enabling beliefs as a channel. Only through repeatedly applying enabling beliefs will you build a channel big enough to get around your limiting belief every time.

When in doubt, remember all of the things that used to be impossible. Everything from human flight, to running a 4 minute mile, to a computer that fits in your pocket was once thought impossible. Become a trailblazer through your own doubts and challenge anything that you think is impossible. All you need to do is apply your brain power and your passion, and you will find channels around every wall that stands between you and your success.

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Coming next: Chapter Three: The Fire In Your Belly

Buy or Not: This book is a buy.  The ideas presented here will re-frame how you think about your business and help you find your passion and put it in your business. Even if you already have a business, you can learn a lot from this book.  Buy this book at Amazon

Bradford Shimp helps small business owners and entrepreneurs build successful businesses.  Read his blog at www.allbizanswers.com.  Follow Bradford on Twitter.