No Such Thing As “Self-Made”

Yesterday my wife and I were sitting outside enjoying breakfast when I lamented that I owe so much of my success to other people.

My thinking went something like this...

“Without [insert person who helped me], I couldn’t be where I am today. If I had to start from scratch today without anyone to help me, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

After all, I had a business mentor who helped me get started back in 2020. Then I joined the StoryBrand community, where I surrounded myself with people who taught me marketing and copywriting and gave me some of my first projects.

After 3 years, that’s grown into a business that I really, really love.

But every now and then, I find myself comparing my work to that of “self-made” entrepreneurs…

Those unicorns who somehow managed to make millions and grow their “empire” without any help.

But Sarah pointed out to me that it’s actually impossible to be truly “self-made”.

Because there are at least two things you need to start and grow a business:

• Education (YouTube, books, courses, college, whatever)

• Customers

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that it takes humans to make educational content…

And chances are, your customers are humans too.

That doesn't even include the professionals who guide you and the friends who encourage you.

It's impossible to achieve success 100% on your own.

So why try?

Instead of glorifying being "self-made," what if we became anti-self-made?

What if we glorified collaboration as much as we glorify "the grind 💪🏽🤑"?

For me, that mindset shift takes a lot of pressure off and makes doing business a whole lot easier.

Who are people you can lean on to be anti-self-made?