One common value that often holds people back from setting and achieving big goals is the need for security. Security is the feeling of certainty that everything is okay and that all your basic needs will be met. On the surface, this seems beneficial—after all, feeling secure is great. Abraham Maslow even lists it as one of the basic human needs. Without security, it’s hard to move onto higher levels like love and self-actualization. If you’re worried about paying the rent, how can you pursue your big dreams? You need to feel secure first, right?
So, how is it that many self-made millionaires started out broke or in debt? How do some people manage to start new businesses while broke, with little or no income and no guarantee of success? Do entrepreneurial risk-takers simply have a lower need for security? If you read biographies of very successful people, you’ll notice a common pattern: many were not in secure situations when they began chasing their dreams. Sylvester Stallone was so broke he had to sell his dog to keep shopping around his Rocky script. Tony Robbins did his dishes in his bathtub because his tiny apartment had no kitchen. Brian Tracy was a day laborer. Og Mandino was a homeless drunk seeking warmth in libraries. Babe Ruth started in an orphanage. While some successful people begin with many advantages, most do not.
Meanwhile, why are others, who seem financially secure, paralyzed from taking action? People with some money in the bank, a nice home, and a steady paycheck still don’t feel secure. Yet others with far worse starting positions surpass them. Why?
The difference isn’t that some people need security more than others. Everyone needs to feel secure. The difference is how security is defined. Entrepreneurial-minded individuals define security internally, while others define it externally.
Those who struggle to take action typically define security as having a certain amount of money in the bank, a fully paid house, a stable high-paying job with benefits, a good relationship with the boss, a reliable car, etc. Security for them is all about external factors. When these externals are stable, they feel secure. But when threatened, like the possibility of getting laid off, they don’t feel secure and spend much time striving to stabilize these external factors.
Conversely, entrepreneurial action-takers define security internally. Security comes from trusting in their ability to think and act. As long as they can think and take action, they feel secure. With this mindset, even homelessness is only a temporary setback. External circumstances don’t threaten their security because their security is guaranteed and cannot be turned off by external events.
When it’s time to take action, one group is paralyzed while the other speeds ahead. According to Maslow’s hierarchy, security is a more basic need than self-actualization. If you don’t feel secure, you can’t fully pursue big goals. Security must come first.
Given that most people don’t start with enough resources to satisfy the external definition of security, those who define security externally won’t pursue their dreams until all external factors are met. They wait until they have enough money to feel secure before chasing their dreams. Most of the time, this never happens—they may die before meeting all these external factors. If they do manage to acquire enough resources, any threat to their security, such as losing money, puts their dreams on hold until they re-establish external security. This ineffective approach means they spend their life pursuing security instead of self-actualizing, which is what most people currently do.
Entrepreneurs, who define security internally, need only to think and act to feel secure. No specific external circumstances are needed. They move straight to self-actualization and stay there, continuously working on their dreams without needing to stop to satisfy some external security need.
An external locus of control is paralyzing. If you define security externally, you’re always at the mercy of factors outside your control. An internal locus of control is empowering. If you define security internally, you always meet that need, regardless of external events, enabling you to take action on your dreams.
Moving from one group to the other is a choice. Just as you may have chosen to define security externally, you can choose to define it internally. You can look externally for validation of who you are and what you’re capable of (as most people do) or you can look internally instead.
Believing you can handle anything that comes your way is a choice. You don’t need to earn it or acquire external validation to earn permission to work on your dreams. You don’t need permission from the external world to pursue your dreams. There’s no physical law requiring you to meet arbitrary external security requirements first. You can start broke and in debt with no stable income and still chase your dreams. Many people have done this and succeeded.
If you define security internally, many obstacles will disappear. While you should be mindful of running out of money, most people overemphasize this and become paralyzed by it. Money is important, but time is far more precious. When you run out of time, you’re done. But when you run out of money, you can keep going. Running out of money doesn’t mean you stop living or chasing your dreams. The game doesn’t end when you run out of money.
The typical self-made millionaire has been broke or nearly broke 3.2 times before making their first million. There are consequences to going broke, and you may need to tighten your belt for a while, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop. Running out of money is largely an imaginary obstacle. For those who define security externally, it’s a huge personal threat to be avoided at all costs. But for those who define security internally, it’s just a temporary setback. Donald Trump, Walt Disney, Abraham Lincoln, and many others experienced this setback but pursued their dreams with tenacity.
It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from—whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, whether you have cash or are broke and in debt. Time is more precious than money. You can lose all your money in pursuit of your dreams and keep going. But you can’t afford to lose time. Money can be restored; time cannot. Even if you have no money, you can still think and act. But when you run out of time, that’s it—game over. Each day is another gone forever. If you paralyze yourself with an external definition of security, you squander your life. If you aren’t working on your dreams today, you’re just counting the days until you die. External security will never come, and you’ll forget to live.
So, what are you waiting for? External security is an illusion. Helen Keller said, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Which will it be for you? Have you chosen the daring adventure or nothing?
