Transcript:

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast, Better Skills, Better Doctors. I'm Rebecca Ong, thanks for joining me today. Today I want to talk about something a little different: the challenge of building a business when you don't have to—when you're already in a good financial place and don't need to work. Maybe you're in a marriage or partnership where your spouse or partner makes enough money to support you. I know there are many of you out there; I went to school with people in this exact situation. I used to be in that camp myself. When I was in practice, my then husband earned enough to support us both comfortably. It felt good to take my time building my business—but that same comfort allowed me to take too much time. For the first six years, I barely paid myself a salary. I ran my practice like a hobby, or what many call a “jobby.” A jobby is when you technically have a business, but it doesn’t profit or support you—it might even lose money. That was me for about six years. I wanted a successful, busy practice, but I didn’t push myself out of my comfort zone. I took insurance so patients would find me without much effort. I justified the low reimbursements and the constant billing headaches as the trade-off for avoiding marketing. I joined a BNI group, learned a lot, but treated it passively—just showing up to meetings without engaging or networking. I wasn’t busy, wasn’t earning much, yet still felt burned out. I complained that business was hard, but there were no financial consequences to motivate me to change. My comfort enabled my stagnation. I was disappointed in myself for not growing, stuck in a loop: wanting to be a badass businesswoman while avoiding the things that would make me one. Every time I felt inspired, I’d start something—then when it got hard or scary, I’d back away. The whole loop would start again. We’re taught from an early age that the purpose of work is to earn a living and survive. That’s been true throughout human history. You work hard, earn your keep, go out and “kill” to survive. So when we start our own practices, even though we have the freedom to design any kind of business we want, most of us end up creating a familiar model: we build ourselves a job. We replicate what we know—being employees. We consume information, regurgitate it to produce results for someone else, and get paid a wage. But now we also own the business, so we’re expected to generate the work for ourselves. Most of us don’t know how to do that—and we resist it. But we can’t. When you own the business, you can’t just be the employee; you must be the generator. If there’s no work to do, there’s no business to run. That’s why you need your own reason—your right reason, your compelling reason—to do the boring, hard work, especially if you don’t have to. People often assume that having a financial cushion makes entrepreneurship easier. Maybe in some ways—but in others, it’s harder. Entrepreneurship is the great equalizer. When you’ve had it easy, you’ve missed opportunities to build resilience—the most essential entrepreneurial skill. To your survival brain, being an entrepreneur feels like putting yourself in danger over and over. It’s walking into the unknown on purpose. To override that instinct, you need a damn good reason—a “why” strong enough to motivate you to keep going when it gets uncomfortable. When I was in my “jobby” stage, I didn’t have that reason. My purpose for being in business was just to make money. But I already had money and stability. My conditioned reasons for working were satisfied. So I had no compelling drive to push through challenges. Most people build businesses from a place of lack or survival. Having your back against the wall can be motivating—but it’s not sustainable. It’s rough on your nervous system and leads to poor decisions that prioritize short-term profit over long-term values. Building from abundance and intention is different. It’s harder because it’s unfamiliar. It requires learning contentment, gratitude, and conscious motivation. But if you already have financial security, that’s the only way that will work. You can’t use fear-based fuel when there’s nothing to fear. So while people think having money makes it easier, it often makes it harder. Comfort dulls the fire. You end up taking longer to get off the ground—or never fully launch. The result is unfulfilled potential. The good news is, it’s absolutely possible to build a thriving practice while living comfortably. You just need a powerful purpose. You need to find your “why”—and it has to be stronger than the comfort holding you back. It must be more compelling than simply “wanting to help people.” There are easier ways to help people. Your “why” must make you willing to face discomfort every day. I created something for those of you in this exact position—those who don’t have to work but want to build something meaningful. You have vision and desire, but comfort wins over ambition again and again. You start things and stop when it gets hard. You tell yourself you’ll get back to it when life settles down—but it never does. The idea fades, and nothing changes. If that sounds like you, this cycle ends now. You need to find your fire—the inner fuel that pushes you through the hard parts. What’s missing isn’t skill or time. It’s that strong, compelling “why” that picks you up when you want to quit and reminds you what’s at stake if you don’t. Most people die with their dreams still inside them. Don’t be one of them. If you’re in the camp of financial comfort, you’re uniquely positioned to do something extraordinary. The only risk is discomfort—and that’s a small price to pay for realizing your full potential. If you don’t have financial pressure but still want to build a real business, Find Your Fire is for you. You’ll be surrounded by others who understand exactly what you’re going through. Together, we’ll help you connect your gifts to the thousands of people who need them. This will be a six-week cohort, kept small and personal. To get on the waitlist and be updated, head to TCM-Hub.com/FYF—Find Your Fire. The link is also in the show notes. That’s all for today. If you’re tired of having ideas and never implementing them, if you know your life and business could be so much better but you’re stuck, then Free and Easy Doctor—or Find Your Fire—is waiting for you. Head over to TCMHub.com, click “Free and Easy Doctor” at the top, and book your breakthrough call today. If this episode hit home, share it with a friend who needs to hear it. If you have a question, click “Send a Text” in the show notes and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode. And if you’re listening on Apple or Spotify, please leave a review or rating—it really helps. Thanks for listening and for considering new perspectives. Talk to you next time. Disclaimer: Rebecca Ong is a certified professional life coach for Chinese medicine physicians. She is not a Certified Financial Planner, financial advisor, or accountant. Life Coaching is not a substitute for therapy, medicine, or medical treatment. Anything discussed in this podcast is for general educational and entertainment purposes only.