The original reason I wanted to be an entrepreneur was to get rich so I could “do whatever I want.”
This idea really took hold when I was 22 years old and saw the movie The Social Network. Here was a young person that had created monumental wealth for themselves by starting their own company. After watching this film, my nights and weekend project quickly became learning about entrepreneurship through books and podcasts.
About a month into my new obsession I read the 4 hour work week which further cemented the idea that I needed to work for myself to eventually achieve freedom.
So I spent the next 10 years of my life doing everything from building a successful lifestyle business that actually let me live the 4 hour work week to building and selling a SaaS company to one of the biggest software companies in the world.
Throughout most of this period, I thought I was chasing freedom, but what I was really doing was pushing away an unconscious sense of worthlessness.
Now being on the other side of both the accomplishments and a new level of awareness, it is incredibly evident to me that money and success don’t actually provide the highest level of freedom we all seek.
I now find myself in all these professional and peer groups of founders with more money and accomplishments than they know what to do with. And if i’m being honest, it seems like most of them can’t actually do what they want. They just don’t know it.
There is an unstated expectation to do something bigger, better, and more impactful in the world.
There are business selection criteria matrixes where ideas are put through a checklist to avoid picking opportunities “not big enough.”
Periods of not working on something eventually inspire a sense of shame and restlessness making Christmas parties a total drag.
I relate all too deeply to this inner world having been the poster boy for it the better part of a decade.
What you realize at a certain level of awareness is that the need to maintain a perceived identity continues to drive this inner activity regardless of how much money or time freedom you have. And the weight of the expectation to maintain a certain position in society or conform to a narrative you’ve created about your self is just as constraining as the need to make money…if not stronger.
It’s hard to see at certain levels of consciousness, but the pursuit of material freedom can be more akin to trading one vector for another vs. truly being free. Yes, we can all agree that no longer having to worry about money is nice, but unless you go inwards to work on your consciousness, you will continuously experience the freedom limitations of the ego.
The graph and trend line above is not a hard and fast correlation, but more of a common expression that seems to occur. There are obviously plenty of people who do not need to make money and are free of the inner pressure to maintain an identity. And many who are not, yet think they are.