Forget Plan B!

Back in the summer of 2005, I found myself between a rock and a hard place.

On April 19, 2005, exactly one month after my second child was born, I quit my job to pursue a new career as a financial planner. I was able to do this because I had received a bonus and, at the time, it was enough to pay my bills for about 2 or 3 months.

Now, I did have a plan. I had partnered with a successful financial planner. He was going to pay me a commission for calling his leads and getting them to attend free dinners. He would then give them a presentation to encourage them to invest with him.

Everything looked like it was going to work out perfectly.

Except one little thing happened that I did not expect.

The local paper in which my “partner” was advertising went belly up the same week I quit my job. And just like that,

All the Leads Dried Up!

Well, I didn’t let that discourage me. I began calling all the old leads in the database… and actually succeeded in filling a couple dinners.

This was no easy task. I was calling leads up to 12 months old — and they didn’t remember anything about the postcard they filled out a year ago.

I might as well have been cold-calling.

Two months later, I had made a couple hundred bucks and was going nowhere fast. Not to mention, my bonus money was nearly gone. I estimated I had about two weeks of money left before I would be unable to pay my bills.

Now, I could have gone back to my previous employer and begged for my old job back… or I could have tried to find a new job… but deep down I didn’t really want another job.

I wanted to be self-employed!

So I did what any slightly crazy entrepreneur would do: I started my freelance copywriting business.

And here I am four years later, still enjoying the freelancer’s life.

Why did I succeed where so many others fail? There are probably many reasons, but the biggest reason of all is

I Had No Choice!

I literally had to make it work… or face losing my house, my cars, and everything else. I had no “plan B.”

In fact, “plan A” was “plan B!”

It seems that among successful entrepreneurs, many of them have experienced a similar “moment of truth” — a moment when they had no choice but to succeed.

As Ken McCarthy points out in his System Secrets book, “Having been in desperate straits more than once in my life, I know there is nothing like ‘do or die’ to focus the mind.” (p. 146)

This is a big reason I think having a “plan B” is overrated. In fact, if you’ve got all kinds of contingencies and backup plans in place, they may even be keeping you from succeeding!

That’s because anytime there’s a safety net, we’re likely to use it. It’s just human nature. We’ll set out to try something new, give it less than our best effort, then fall back into the relative comfort of our “safety net hammock.”

Why?

Because the Safety Net Is There.

Whenever you have a “plan B” or backup plan or safety net, it’s probably blocking you from the success you seek.

You don’t hear many success stories from 30-year-old guys living in their parents’ basements. Now you  know why.

You know who else has a great “moment of truth” story?

Copywriter and “kitchen table entrepreneur” Doberman Dan.

He tells of a time when he turned his back on a job (in spite of having almost nothing to his name) — and then digging down deep to pull out a five-figure income in a matter of months.

It’s a great story filled with lessons for the observant marketer. I highly recommend you take a moment to read it here:

From Kitchen Table Business to Million-Dollar Buyout

-Ryan M. Healy