Are You Playing to Win or Are You Playing Not to Lose?

Yes, I'm speaking to you. Are YOU playing to win?

OR

Are you playing not to lose?

I met with Michael Gerber (the author of the E-Myth) last week. We were discussing different business possibilities when he said to me:

"David, in North America alone 500,000 businesses are started every month and 85% of them are out of business before the end of their first year."

This statistic makes my heart sink. In my experience, most people open businesses because they really do desire a different result in their lives and they understand they will not ever have the freedom they desire without owning their own business. The death of a business is the death of a heartfelt dream.

So why are so many businesses failing?

These ex-business owners would, I'm sure, refer to an endless combination of "reasons" and "impossible circumstances", but here's what I know to be true:

For every reason a person comes up with to explain "why" a business failed, we can find a parallel story of a successful business owner who experienced very similar challenges, but overcame them to win.

Businesses fail because their owners quit. Period. I will never accept any other explanation.

As entrepreneurs, we are either playing to win, or we are playing not to lose ...

If you're playing not to lose (whether it be in your business, your marriage, or any other undertaking), what you are actually telling yourself is that you're NOT willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. You are holding onto a psychological "way out". You are forever leaving yourself a backdoor to escape.

No significant achievement can support an escape route, and the reason is this:

The mind works in such a way that it will always take the path of least resistance. Whenever we have a problem, we must recognize that the solution exists simultaneously. However, in order to recognize and execute the solution, we are required to grow. The solving of any problem can't come out of the same thinking that created it. Something new must be born in order to manifest the new thought. Change is not a comfortable thing to do, so when it becomes too uncomfortable we begin to look for the escape route ... we accept that the unfortunate "circumstance" is too great, and we allow ourselves to fail.

You see, if we entertain any possibility of failure, if we leave the escape door open, we will not attract the thoughts required to solve the problem.

Conversely, playing to win simply means making the decision to "become" and to "do" absolutely whatever it takes to accomplish your objective. You will accept no other outcome but success.

This decision will cause you to grow in amazing ways and become all you need to be to live your dream.

It's time to witness "Playing to Win" in Action!