Please Don't Ignore This 2,000-Year-Old Success Principle

Graham Cochrane (0:01)

Welcome to The Graham Cochrane Show, where each week I help you create more money, margin, and meaning in your life. I'm your host, of course, Graham Cochrane. Let's get into it.

There's something quietly robbing you of success right now. And it's not your market, it's not the algorithm, it's not your audience or the economy, it's you. And honestly, that's the best news you'll hear today, because if it's you, you can fix it. And the fix isn't a new strategy. It's not a new tool or a new funnel. It's been hiding in plain sight for over 2,000 years, and most people read right past it. Please don't be one of them. In this episode, I'm going to show you what it is, how to catch yourself working against it, and the one shift that changes everything. Now, I coach business owners for a living, and every week I'm on calls with my clients. And these people are doing great things in the world, and they have great hearts to serve, and they want to make money, they want to have time for their families, they want to make an impact in the world, they want to have work that's purposeful and meaningful. And so they're on a mission to improve their lives and their businesses and the lives of their clients. And I love that that gets to be my mission, I get to help people like them. And they're great people, I love spending time with them, but sometimes they ask questions that blow my mind. And let me give you an example. Often what I'm helping people do is market their offers or grow their business. Sometimes I'll help them create a virtual event, like a paid challenge or a webinar or launch a group coaching program.

And I'm coaching them and I'm answering questions, and I'll get a question that sounds something like this. Hey, Graham, what if nobody signs up for my challenge? What if nobody comes to my webinar?

Or when I present my offer at the end of an event or a challenge or a webinar or on a sales call, what if nobody buys? What if I launch a group coaching program, Graham, and what if only one or two people buy? That's not much of a group, is it? What will people think? They ask these questions that absolutely blow my mind that they would ever utter these questions off their lips. And I shudder inside just a little bit because I'm being dramatic. But I don't know what questions you ask, but I'm willing to bet you are asking or have asked at some point or another a what-if question just like that.

The blank at the end of the what-if can be more specific to you, but often it sounds something like, what if this doesn't work?

What if I never make it? What if things never improve? What if we are always stuck here dealing with X, Y, and Z?

What if, what if, what if? The what-if questions are always negative. They are always outcomes we don't desire. Have you ever noticed that? I hear it almost weekly with my clients. So if I'm hearing it regularly from them, I imagine it's rampant throughout the world. And so why do we do this? Because we have a reason for everything we do. The reason we ask these questions is for self-protection.

It's for self-protection. We don't want to be disappointed. We want to anticipate what we think is a worst-case scenario, so we can plan for that worst-case scenario, prepare for that worst-case scenario, so that we won't be taken by surprise. We won't be caught off guard. It almost is a form of pride that when something goes bad invariably, we will be like, I knew this was going to happen, and I'm prepared for this exact moment, and so I don't have to freak out.

People like to say when they ask these questions, they're being realistic. They might even call themselves, I'm a realist. I'm like, you're a pessimist, but you can call it whatever you want. It's a nice euphemism. That's actually a very positive spin on your negativity. It's kind of ironic.

But what you're really doing if you ask yourself that question is you are expecting things to fail. You are expecting to lose. And so what I want you to know before I share this text with you and just hopefully reframe everything for you so that you can become wildly successful, is I want you to see how nefarious and how insidious the what-if question is. Because as a society, we tend to, not everybody, but most people tend to have the words, what-if, precede every negative thing they don't want to happen. And they ask themselves those questions all the time. What if this happens? What if that happens?