The 4 Career Traps That Keep Professionals Stuck (And How to Escape Them)

If you think they're starting a business is just a matter of choosing the right idea, making the right connections or building something that no one has ever seen before, you're not entirely wrong. but you are missing the biggest reason most people don't succeed. Everyone would love to have a business. but most people never have that chance. And it's not because they're lazy. it's not because they had bad ideas. It's because there was something, something invisible that just took them off course that stopped them from making progress. And sadly, most people don't tell you what that something is. I have been both successful and not successful with the businesses I've created. I've had ones that have sold for millions, but I've also spent months working on things that never saw the light of day. I once spent nine and a half months working on an app that I thought was going to be brilliant. I had the prototype. I had the logo, the website. But well I was always working on that one more thing I needed. Someone else came along and launched with a really simple version and they succeeded. I ended up just closing my laptop, forgetting about it and moving on. that happens way more often than people would like to admit, because success isn't just about what you build. It's about how you manage your time and how you manage the inevitable phases you will go through if you try to start a business. So today I'm going to share with you what those phases are, how you know if you're in them. And what you can do when you find yourself facing those problems, those situations, to get out of it as fast as you possibly can. All right, let's talk about phase one, because this is the point where a lot of people get stuck and they don't even realize it. At this phase, you're doing something real. You have an idea. You're building a prototype or a website. spending a little bit too long on that logo and while all of it feels like progress, it's not because if nobody is seeing what you're building, then you're really just hiding. That's why I call this one the comfort trap, because you're doing a lot of work, but you're not taking any risks yet. You're not putting yourself in a position where people are going to judge you or criticize you, where people are going to have to ask you what it is you're working on. You're just doing things that you think feel smart. They are smart, but only up to a point. The longer you stay in this phase, the longer you stay comfortable, the less likely it's going to be that you ever come out of it. The way to come out isn't to do something big. You don't have to launch the most perfect version of your idea. You don't have to have something polished. You just have to take a step that creates a little bit of friction. You need that friction to get feedback, to get criticism, to create momentum for yourself and to figure out what it is you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. So what you need to do when you get here, or if you're already here, is just to reach out to some people and tell them what you're working on. say, hey, I'm trying to start something that's going to help people with X. Do you think that would be useful to you or anybody else you know? Just say it. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. Just try putting it out into the world. Give yourself 48 hours. Don't overthink it just hits end because once you do, your idea will be real. It'll be out into the world and you can move forward. Okay, you made a move. You shared something, you posted it, you published it, and then nothing happened. There's no likes, no views, no feedback. Nobody says anything. And this is phase two. This is where most people quietly quit, not because they failed, but because nothing happened and that felt like failure. I call this the deafening silence because you put something real out into the world and you You heard nothing, but hearing nothing is incredibly loud in your own head. This is where you start second guessing everything. You start wondering if you were dumb to have ever tried in the first place, if you're good enough to actually be someone who succeeds. And if you're here right now, I just want to say to you. It is not you, this is completely normal. Most ideas take time to get traction. Almost nobody is going to see the first thing you do. They're not going to read your first posts. They're not going to try the first version of your product. It's normal. And if you give up right now, then you won't succeed. You have to find a way to block out the silence and keep moving forward. So what do you do in this phase? Well, first you have to stop measuring success by how other people respond to your early works. Start asking yourself, did I show up to day? Did I do the work? Did I put something real out into the world? Was I nervous, but did I do it anyway? That's the real score you need to be keeping right now. What did you do and how are you handling the disappointment, the quiet times? And if the silence still feels heavy, then here's a couple of quick tips to just take the pressure off. Just ask yourself these four things. What did I expect to happen? What actually happened? What am I telling myself as a result of that? And if a friend told me this, if a friend was going through it, what would I say to them? Doesn't matter how you do it. You can write it down. You could say it out loud, but the real point is to stop letting the voices in your head control your future actions. This phase is not about success or failure. This is the phase where you prove to yourself that you can keep going even when there is no applause or no response. If you can do that, then you're already doing things most people never will. And you will have the opportunity to move on to the next phase where things will get more interesting. And they will also get a little bit more confusing. Sorry, phase three. And this one get a little tricky, because at this point, it might start feeling like things are finally working. There's people that are paying attention. People are responding to your post. They're liking your work. They're leaving you encouraging comments like, this is such a great idea. I'm so proud of you. Keep going. For a second, you might say, oh yeah, I'm onto something here. but then you ask for something real. You ask for people to show up, to sign up, to pay you, and you get absolutely no commitment whatsoever. This is what I call the validation mirage, because it looks like momentum, but it's not. It's just people being nice. And don't get me wrong. Kindness is great. Kindness can sustain you in some of your darkest days, but kindness is not the same as commitment. Someone telling you that you have a cool idea is not the same thing as them saying, I want this. I need this. I will pay for this. So how do you know when you're in this phase? Well, typically it happens when you've put something out there, but you haven't forced anybody to make a decision. All they've had to do at this point is to react to it. but that's not real validation. That's just noise. You need to figure out if what you have is something that people are ultimately going to want to buy. So what do you do when you're here? You just need to raise the bar a little bit. You don't have to go big, you don't have to have a formal launch or a big sales pitch. All you need to do is get people in a position where they have to finally make a yes or no decision. So here's how you do it. Write down a simple description of what you're working on, keep it brief and casual three to five sentences, and follow it up with a real ask. The ass doesn't have to be big. It can be something as simple as, would you use this? Would you recommend this to someone? Can I spend 15 minutes with you talking through the idea? Maybe can I work on your project or work with you for free to validate that this thing brings value? It should be a little uncomfortable. and that's it. That's how you know you're doing it right. You're asking people to get off the fence to really validate your idea. And that's the goal here. The goal of this phase isn't to succeed is not to make millions of dollars is to get clarity. You don't need fifty people to say yes. You need one. You just need one clear signal that what you're doing isn't just in your head, that it has real value that people genuinely want it. And once you have that then you have something real. Then you can move on to the fourth and final phase and be that much closer to finally succeeding. All right. phase four. This one shows up quietly, but if you let it in, it can destroy everything that you've been working towards. Just remember where you came from. You had an idea to put out into the world. You started getting a little bit of feedback a momentum and you even had a few people say, yeah, I would use that. But if things don't go exactly the way you had dreamt, you start letting these thoughts creep in that can really derail everything. You start wondering if it's time to change, maybe your idea is not that good. You start thinking that up pivot might help you grow faster or maybe just a fresh start. You know, you know so much more now. Maybe it's time to do it all over again, but with new knowledge. You might even find that you're telling yourself it's a smart thing to do, but most of the time it's not. It's just fear creeping in. I call this phase escapeatch because it shows up when you're starting to feel uncomfortable when things are getting real, and it gives you an out where you feel like you're doing a smart thing, even though what you're really doing is really resetting all of the momentum that you've been building. But here's what's really going on. You're mistaking your discomfort for misallignment of your idea. And that is a really easy and common mistake to make because everything feels uncomfortable at the beginning. Your offer is going to feel. clunky, your product's not going to feel polished. Your message isn't going to feel like you. But that doesn't mean it's wrong. It just means that you're in the early stages. It means that you're still figuring it out and shaping it to be what you need it to be. If you bail at this point, if you hit reset too soon, then you're never going to get to see what your idea could have become. You're going to lose all the momentum, all the feedback that you've gathered. And worst of all, you're going to road your own confidence that you're the type of person who could actually see things out long enough to be in the position to succeed. So here's what you do is said. Before you pivot, just pause and use this gut check that I call the rule attends. Just ask yourself these questions. Have I shown it to at least ten real people? Have I put it into the world at least ten different times, and have I given it enough time to learn something new each of those times I put something out there? If you answer no any of those questions, that is probably not time to pivot. You're just afraid. You're letting that fear drive your actions and you're convincing yourself that it's logical to just do things differently because things haven't worked out yet. I'm not telling you that you don't need to refine. Of course you need to refine. Every time you learn something, you should be applying that and doing something a little bit differently, but don't confuse iteration with escape. One is advancing what you're working on, and one is just pulling the cord and saying I'm out of here. So instead of packing everything up is starting over, every time you put something out there. Just ask yourself, what worked this time? What didn't work? What can I do a little bit differently? That's the whole game. Do you don't have to make big changes? you don't have to throw away everything you've learned. Just make small iterations throughout the course of trying it out. Through the ten times you're going to put something out there and each time see if things get a little bit better or a little bit worse. If you can do that, if you can share it with real people and keep iterating, then eventually you can stick with it long enough to close the loop. And that's where things get exciting. That's where real businesses are made. So if you're in this phase, just take a breath, zoom out, realize where you are, where you came from, and realize that you're only a few steps away from being one of the very few people who has a real business who brought an idea into the world and turned it into a success. Starting a business and succeeding is a magic. It really is an endurance game. These faces are inevitable. You will go through them. But there are other mistakes and traps that can stop you from succeeding along your way. So when you're ready, I recommend you watch this video next where I talk about some of the biggest mistakes I made in the first year of this new business, so that you can avoid those as well.