All my life, I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit. I frequently come up with great ideas and have others present their ideas and opportunities to me. Many of them are very good ideas in my mind. I believe that some of them will revolutionize the world, or at least my world (I say that tongue in cheek). This constant wheels turning, always innovating is something that I often times refer to as the curse of the entrepreneur: the “I should…”

When dreams become duties

We—and I’m referring to you as well as myself—get so wrapped up in our ambition and the ideas that drive it. We begin to identify ourselves with our ideas.

At the same time, we hold our ideas close, guarding them until we’re ready to bring them to the world. We plot ways to give birth to our new ideas, and often, we bring them alongside the ideas we’re already working on and trying to make a success of.

As someone who has taught and coached thousands of real estate investors across the country, I’m no longer surprised at the fact that every investor thinks they have a new idea, that their idea is the one that’s going to revolutionize the way real estate investing is done. They’re going to do something that no one else has ever done and build a business unlike anyone else’s.

I love the ambition, but one thing I can say is that what they think is a new idea really isn’t. I’ve coached dozens, if not hundreds who have already been down the same path. But that’s beside the point.

These investors believe they have a responsibility to take their new idea to market, like they have a duty to pursue it. Deep down, they believe that they can make it successful. And if they don’t do it now, they’ll hold on to the dream in anticipation of doing it later.

Because they “could,” they “should”

Many entrepreneurs go for it because they can. They have multiple entities and partnerships, pursue multiple ventures, and work with multiple investors.

Because they could, they pride themselves on their ability to juggle so much. They believe that all of their ideas will be big someday. The reality is most of them will struggle, but because they can do it, they feel like they should do it.

Should they?

What’s the cost of pursuing everything you could do?

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says: “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.”

Something has to give. Not everything is constructive.

Either our core business will be compromised, or worse yet, something much more important, those close to us, our loved ones, will pay the price if we pursue all that we can.

(Note: If you struggle with feeling like there’s too much you should do, you could really benefit from prioritizing your life with a Vision. Our Vision is a clear, written description of what your complete, ideal life looks like. If you don’t have your own Vision yet, here’s a simple resource that can help you start the process for yourself.)

And the sad part is that just about every one of these entrepreneurs would advocate for the philosophy of focus. They would tell others that they should focus on one thing. And they would be upset if those working for them were not focused on getting their jobs done. They would use terms like “laser focused” or “go deep”, but they rarely take this advice for themselves.

They believe that they are the exception and that they can juggle it all because “they could”.

Turning towards others

The fear of missing out of an opportunity, the fear of not pursuing something and seeing someone else successful with the same idea, drives many investors crazy. But as entrepreneurs our greatest fear should be that we become successful at the wrong things!

Paul followed up his above statement with this: “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”

Like I spoke about in a previous post, Teach to Grow, I believe profound things can happen when we turn towards others. I suggest that we focus on one great idea, one that builds up others, starting with those closest to us.

Do you feel that you are spread too thin because you’ve taken on too much? Are you laser focused in what you do? What will you choose to focus on? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.