#112: Fulfillment or money? You can have both and here's why...

Q: How do people harness or fail to harness their emotional intelligence in making business-related decisions?

We’ve seen people build businesses in alignment with themselves vs. people who have built businesses based on what they think success looks like.

We feel that there can be a crossroad of needing to make money for bills vs. doing what lights us up. This kind of thinking in and of itself is a trap. There doesn’t have to be “one or the other”, although sometimes society likes to trick us into believing that’s true.

We are told that there is only One Path that will lead us to success, money, and fame.

Many of us will sell our souls to follow what “works” because we crave the assumed security that comes with success. We think following this path will give us a sturdy foundation and we’ll never have to worry about money, which will lead us to a happy, safe, and secure life.

This is not about not making money… this is about us thinking that having a certain amount of money will eliminate all of our worries and problems and therefore it’s the priority. It’s about knowing that no amount of money will ever truly make us feel whole.

Money can only offer us so much, so we need to prioritize HOW we are making money. If we are making it in a way that lights us up, we are more able to feel whole.

Susan Piver talks about how our society values three things and that while these three things are valuable, they aren’t going to guarantee our safety, security and happiness. Those three things are:

Excellent commerce/business

Profound ideas

Skillful leadership

This is our dogma in the entrepreneurial world, that those three things above all other things are to be valued. It’s a pedestal that we’ve created and ultimately all want to get on because then we will be safe from struggle. If we achieve those three things, we are safe.

With covid, we are seeing a lot of wealthy, successful people who are struggling mentally and emotionally and lots of people are lacking empathy for them because of the fallacy that having money guarantees happiness.

Going back to your choice of which path to take, if the path towards endless amounts of money (at the expense of our fulfillment) won’t fix all of our problems, then why is it so high on our pedestal?

When choosing the so-called guaranteed business model, understand that there is actually no guarantee by taking that path. So if you’re assuming risk, why not lean into the path that fuels us and makes us come alive.

We need more people who are empowered and radiating joy. Not more people who are doing things to pay their bills.

You can have both: alignment and money. Lean into that. If you aren’t sure how to do that, hit reply and let’s chat. I happen to be really good at helping people do both, and I want that for you too.

Real courage is giving our business everything you’ve got despite any guarantee of achieving a certain outcome.

I believe in you!