In this series of articles we will tell you the true story of how, Joe, a fintech entrepreneur, was able to leverage his own ‘unfair advantage’ and adopt a new set of practices that would lead them to unprecedented growth. How can we learn from him and apply the same tools? Stay tuned!

Scale!” I hear all the time. “There’s no market for my product or service,” I often hear clients complaining, or “I don’t have enough resources,” or “I don’t know how to…” There are too many challenges entrepreneurs face, so many difficulties that seem insurmountable as I bring my vision to the world, one step at a time. As an entrepreneur myself, I certainly know the all-too-familiar feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward.

Other times, a sudden win puts everything into perspective and makes it all … easier.

But while victory may be occasional, the grueling experience of being an entrepreneur or creator often leaves a sour taste in my mouth as I face the next challenge. Whatever the odds, I keep moving forward to make it happen. I believe so strongly in my vision that I must take the next step toward manifesting it, to that moment when my revenue stream will grow and grow. I’ve been through this cycle, and I’m here to share my experience.

What if there was an unfair advantage that has not yet been tapped into that could help increase my chances of success as well as the speed at which I would make it happen?

What if I could not only meet my next milestones, but exceed them and increase my revenue beyond what I thought possible?

I’ll answer these questions through a real-life example — let’s call him Joe — who made 1000% more revenue in the hour he used to tap into it than he did the next week trying to force his way forward as usual.

The entrepreneur’s usual path… to more challenges

Joe is trying to overcome challenges like any other fintech leader: expensive but unreliable developers, a very emotional community and customer base, a lack of right-fit customers, and funds to raise… In other words, a business to run! What does Joe do to move forward? He pushes every day to make things happen. He fights his way up so that his dream, the vision of his company, is somehow manifested and not forgotten. He stumbles a lot and has often taken action to ensure the survival of his company. Should I mention that he has no personal life, no space for himself or his loved ones, no time to rest and no resources to find new angles on the mountain of problems that attack him every day? Sometimes he cries himself to sleep.

Finding the right patterns

What is Joe doing wrong?

Running a successful business requires a strategic alignment of patterns that drive the desired outcome of our vision. From client onboarding, marketing outreach, or generating revenue — each aspect of a business is built upon specific patterns designed to yield results.

Yet, entrepreneurs must also address internal patterns — those thoughts and actions that are the very salt with which we are building our experience day in and day out.

The main problem here is that Joe is repeating patterns that keep leading him to more limitations and not enough expansion. By meeting every resistance the world shows him with the only method he knows: fight and be in survival mode, he forces the outcome he wants (developers who deliver reliably, happy customers and investors), which only creates more resistance. This reinforces the need to fight and survive, creating a vicious cycle that increases the likelihood of failure.

These patterns, sometimes manifested through Joe’s fighting habits, are formed from his past — from watching his parents go through their own lives, or from his own experiences as a teenager or adult.

In other words, before Joe started to shift gears, 99% of his experience as an entrepreneur and the success of the business that he invested his life in was driven by habits, beliefs, and patterns that were running on autopilot and most of the time led him to give up on his dream.

Past experiences shape behavioral patterns

Let me emphasize this point here. The collection of his past experiences and his emotional connection to them led him to the situations and issues we described earlier that could reinforce whatever he believed in: if in the past he felt fear in a situation when he saw his parents losing money, his entrepreneurial journey will automatically bring him to a very similar situation (with different circumstances of course) so that he can experience and reinforce (or make a new choice) the same fear. If he has watched his parents struggle to make ends meet all his life, he will continue to repeat the same pattern throughout his life and therefore his entrepreneurial journey, until he awakens from this autopilot mode and makes the decision to change it.

This mechanism applies to every aspect of the entrepreneurial journey (and your life’s too :)).

I can now see that

1) Joe will not succeed by mindlessly pushing forward as it leads to more resistance

2) Joe always has the option to look inward, make new choices, and tap into his unfair advantage, and the sooner he does the better for his business

3) The cost of fear or unexpressed emotions (and therefore limiting patterns) is staggering when looking at it from a bottom-line perspective. It can cost Joe his life savings or for a larger company, millions of dollars.

Use these 3 simple steps to start optimizing your own patterns

Notice the pattern: What repetitive actions or habits that stunt your progress have you observed?

Examine it with curiosity: What are some limiting beliefs that are the source of these negative patterns?

Bring heartfulness to the situation: Let go of that belief that does not serve you anymore and be open to the changes that will unfold from then on.

Amindless pattern repetition stemming out of an unresolved past issue will express itself on my journey and lead me to unexpected staggering losses.

At one point in my entrepreneurial journey, I have been faced with the choice of moving forward or staying stuck in the past. One way leads to new levels of self-awareness, heartfulness, and resilience while the other leads to endless patterns of failure.

So think to yourself, fellow entrepreneur — are there any similar negative patterns hindering you from finding success?

Now I am ready to discover which steps Joe took to shift his whole journey and break free!

Stay tuned for the next article to learn how breaking free from limiting patterns can reveal your unfair advantage.