This article has been fully updated for 2026

I have a question for you today. An important question.

The question is this. Does your business energize you and excite you?

Well, it should do.

In fact, it HAS to!

Seriously.

Here’s why energy and excitement are essential

It’s impossible to build a truly successful business, unless that business fills you with energy and excitement.

Think about it.

• The energy is what keeps you moving forward. It’s the essential fuel that powers every successful business owner.
• The excitement is what brings that energy. It’s also what the marketplace needs to feel, whenever they have an encounter with you or your business. It’s highly infectious. It inspires people to hire you, buy from you and recommend you.

And that energy can be yours. If you want it.

Choose energy. Choose success!

You can choose to either create an inspirational business, or carry on like 99% of small and medium-sized business owners, in a business you love, which doesn’t love you back.

Small business owners suffer more stress, work longer hours and work harder, than they would do if they were an employee. They work themselves harder than any boss would, with none of the perks of being a salaried employee.

And that’s nuts!

New clients often tell me they would see other business owners, who were brimming with energy, enthusiasm and ideas, and wonder how those other business owners managed to be so motivated.

Usually, they blame themselves for not being a very self-motivated type of person.

Thankfully, they discover they’re 100% incorrect.

Any business owner can become highly-motivated and energized. However, it isn’t going to happen while they’re working in a business that’s zapping their energy or failing to inspire them.

An exciting example

Last year, I wanted to pump even more excitement, and fun, into my creative thinking work. 

So, I created a £15,000 bounty offering. If an artist or large company in the creative industries has an expensive problem, I’ll eliminate the problem fast, for £15,000.

I don’t pitch the service to anyone. It’s here on my creative thinking website, which attracts artists and senior people in the creative industries every day. A reader sees the service, fills in the form and sends it to me. If I know I can solve it in a day or so, and they are credible, I solve it.

So, every morning when I check my email, I have the excitement of knowing I might have another, very quick £15,000 project. It doesn’t happen every week or every month. But that buzz of excitement is there every day.

Clarity is the key

All that energy only comes, when you are clear about what you want from your business AND how to achieve it. This massively improves the way you think and feel about your business. That’s because you know what you want, know how to get it and can see progress toward it. I see the impact this has on business owners all the time. I’m telling you, it’s transformational!

The challenge you need to overcome, if you want to access that energy and excitement, can be summed-up in one word.

Settling.

Settling: the destroyer of dreams

Most small business owners have spent so long with their daily grind, that they unconsciously start to settle for things the way they are. Sure, they hope things will improve. Occasionally, they’ll try something new. But they find themselves with the same core problem. So they wrongly blame themselves for lacking the motivation or energy.

To turn this around, you must refuse to settle.

• Stop LOWERING your lifestyle goals, so that they fit around the limitations of your under-performing business.
• Start INCREASING your effectiveness, so your business provides everything you need, and more.

Here’s the best part.

You are in control

You don’t need to settle for anything.

You are the boss.

You get to build whatever kind of business you want. You choose how enjoyable your work is. You get to decide what you earn, where you work, where you live, the number of hours you work and the quality of your clients. You get to choose how interesting and fulfilling your work is.

Next steps: make the decision to stop settling. Then, do something about it.

Image: Shutterstock.

One of the greatest barriers to business success, are our undiscovered mistakes. I’m referring to those errors we make, without even knowing it.

Undiscovered mistakes are especially dangerous. That’s because we don’t know we’re making them, so we’re likely to inadvertently repeat them. Again and again.

How do we stop these mistakes from happening to us?

My mentor’s advice to me

Here’s something one of my mentors shared with me over 25 years ago. It’s simple and quite brilliant.

• He told me to undertake a review, every time something of any importance goes wrong. Today we’d call this ‘unpacking the problem’.
• He advised me to do this in as much detail as possible, and as soon after the mistake has been spotted as possible, and that it was essential to do it in writing.
• By unpacking the problem soon after noticing it, we can still remember it clearly. So we’re less likely to miss anything. Usually, it’s a small or minor-looking detail that’s causing the mistake.
  • IMPORTANT: Often, the minor detail is something we’re missing or doing incorrectly in multiple activities or strategies. Identifying it in ONE mistake, can dramatically improve our business results, when we eliminate it from all future activities and strategies.
• By writing it down (especially on paper), rather than thinking it over exclusively in our head, we put space between us… and the problem.
• He explained that the space between us and the problem, is where answers are born. This last step sounds almost poetic. However, it’s exactly what I’ve found happens. By looking at the problem on paper, and thinking it through in my mind, that space in-between is like fertile soil from which answers sprout up.

I have no idea as to exactly how this strategy works. I only know it does, and with surprising frequency. That’s to say, it’s worked for me again and again over the past 25 years. And I’ve literally lost count of how many others I have shared the idea with, who have seen equally good, or better, results from it.

Give it a try the next time something meaningful goes wrong. You have nothing to lose from the additional clarity the strategy will bring. And you could find it saves you a fortune… or helps you make a fortune.

Either way, it’s certainly worth trying.

I spent a little time this weekend, speaking with a guy who made a multi-million dollar fortune, from scratch, when he was in his 30’s. Now in his 50’s, Bernard’s enjoying a much quieter life in the countryside.

He shared an idea with me, about what he called his secret to making money, especially when times are challenging.

Now I’m going to share it with you.

Bernard’s advice for making lots of money

He started by talking about how little attention is given to the figure of $999,999.

Yes, I know that sounds a little weird, but please bear with me.

Here’s what he said.

• You never hear anyone say that want to live the $999,999 lifestyle.
• You never see a TV show called who wants to be the owner of $999,999.
• You never hear anyone talking about “a cool $999,999”.
• And no one has ever told anyone that they look like $999,999.

His point is that it’s the cool million dollars that gets all the focus and attention.

Early, sustained motivation is the key

Here’s the core of Bernard’s idea, which I think gets his point across beautifully:

Ten by ten by ten is a thousand. Do that another three times and you get a million. Those who manage to make a million are the ones who can get motivated when it’s just $10 – – and then stay motivated when it’s only $1000, or $10,000.

Because the jump from $10,000 to $100,000 isn’t that hard. And from $100,000 to $Million it’s even easier.

Whether it’s building a business, building a fortune or building a subscriber base, there is a common thread.

The work at the beginning is disproportionately hard and unrewarding.

And the way we choose to navigate that difficult period will determine whether we reach the breakthrough, where it becomes easier and the rewards massively greater.

If you’re going through that hard, unrewarding period in any area right now, check your strategy and if it remains sound, keep going!

It really does seem this is the point where results are determined. It’s certainly where most people lose heart.

Like achieving anything of value, Bernard’s advice falls into the ‘easier said than done’ category.

But in fairness, no one suggests making a ton of money is easy.

That’s the very reason we’re advised to overcome the initial difficulties and persist.