One of the most popular pieces of advice in the entrepreneurial world is to hustle, hustle, hustle – what our guest Christopher Lochhead describes as “one of the dumbest pieces of advice of all time” – to reach a place of financial freedom and then coast.
This paradigm, then, is working hard now for the ultimate goal of not working... but I don’t think that’s really being an entrepreneur. That’s just making money.
And Christopher Lochhead – a retired three-time CMO, the co-author of both Play Bigger and Niche Down, and the host of Legends & Losers – knows a thing or two about being an entrepreneur.
Many of the leading “entrepreneurs” will teach us that success is having the freedom to sit on a beach drinking mai tais all day, but the unfortunate reality is that a lot of people are just trading comfort for aliveness.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Drinking mai tais on a beach can be a lot of fun (although I’d prefer a whiskey) – but there comes a time when doing nothing, or “trolling around in your net worth,” as Christopher describes it, is just boring.
And on a more existential level, that kind of comfort doesn’t come with a purpose or real fulfillment – because “who we are is a direct function of the difference that we make.”
The mistake almost everybody makes is that they get fooled into believing that the pathway to success is fitting in.
When in reality, “it’s the people who are different that make the difference” – and that’s true in entrepreneurship and in life.
Legendary entrepreneurs are known for the niche that they own, not their product or service. That comes later.
Too many entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to compete with their product or company, so don’t make the same mistake – making the biggest difference comes down to being the most different.
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The Impact Entrepreneur Show is produced by Podcast Masters