My name is Mark, and I’m an addict. At least, I was an addict, and I’m trying every day to fight my way clear of it. And I’m not alone. 

Show me someone who’s just abandoned the security of a nine-to-five job, and all the sick leave, holiday pay and guaranteed superannuation that goes with, to launch their own business, and I’ll show you someone buzzing off one of the most potent natural highs there is. 

It’s a rush, there’s simply no other way to describe it. And you can quickly find yourself addicted to it. That feeling of being in business, being in control, in charge of your own destiny, and having your entire financial world at your fingertips, is something that not everyone gets to experience, and it will have your serotonin spiking just as surely as any other drug, legal or illegal. 

But just like a drug, it can be dangerous. It can ruin your business, and your life, if you let it. 

When you have a competitive nature, and I do, you want to do everything yourself, and whenever you see an opportunity, you take it, no matter how much you’ve already got on your plate. You’re chasing that reward chemical, trying to satisfy your unquenchable thirst for winning. 

And then you find more to do, and more again. You keep loading up on tasks, on responsibilities, just like any other addict chases bigger and bigger highs. 

But again, just like any addiction, a crash is coming. There is no way you can do everything and pay individual tasks the attention they deserve, and businesses that haven’t learned to delegate are destined for the scrapheap. 

That can be as simple as recruiting a bookkeeping service to ensure you’re invoicing – and more importantly, being paid – on time, or as complex as recruiting sales and marketing staff to help grow the business beyond its current boundaries. But make no mistake, business owners who take it all on themselves will crash and burn. It’s a matter of when, not if. 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my decades of business, it’s that the more you try to do, the less successfully you’ll do it. It’s a painful lesson to learn, but also an extremely valuable one. 

For me, it was about learning not to dabble into too many things. I learned that I needed to trim down my business to two or three core functions, most of which fall under the same umbrella. And for me, that’s helping people.

Yellow Brick Road is about trying to help people achieve their financial goals, whether that’s buying a home or securing a comfortable retirement. My Mentored division is about helping small businesses reach their potential, and saving SMB owners from going to the wall.

In a way, that’s my business drug now. Only this one is far more sustainable than my earlier addiction. The question now is, what’s your core function?

Let me show you my framework for running a successful business – Click Here