why keep going

Summary

people ask me this all the time. why are you still doing this. the money is good, the family is healthy, the businesses are running. why keep going.

the honest answer is I love the game. Simon Sinek calls it the infinite game in his book of the same name. the goal isn’t to win and walk away. the goal is to stay in the game as long as possible and keep getting better at it.

I left the Air Force partly because the ceiling was too clear. I knew exactly what the next 20 years looked like. entrepreneurship does the opposite. every quarter the board is different. every year I’m a different version of myself.

my motivation isn’t a number. it isn’t legacy. it’s the fear of getting to the end of my life and meeting the version of me I could have been if I’d kept pushing. that’s the man I’m trying to become. that’s why I keep going.

Transcript

introduction to the podcast and today’s theme about ongoing motivation

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey. So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. If things get hard, why keep going? And if you don’t need money anymore, you achieved everything that you could want.

Why keep going? What keeps you going? This is the Better Human Business Podcast. I’m Jerred Moon. And let’s talk about what keeps you going. What keeps me going? I got this question recently from someone, another business owner, and he was really interested to know, like, why, why keep trying? Like why keep going? You know, it’s, he was like, it seems like you’ve achieved a lot, like as an entrepreneur. Like what, what keeps you motivated? Why, why keep going?

And it’s not the first time I’ve received that question. And I’m always slightly flattered, you know, when I hear that question and, you know, it stokes the ego a little bit, but I, because that person obviously thinks I’ve done amazing things and I never really feel that way. And it’s not that I’m so satisfied or unsatisfied with my achievements that I feel like I’ve done nothing. But my point being is like you, you’re never going to feel like you made it necessarily, even if you have, even if you’ve achieved most of what you wanted.

exploration of why success isn’t the end of the road and why we continue striving for more

And just, just for context, I would have to rearrange things in my life, but I absolutely could. I’m not going to get into like the absolute tactical level, like what I would need to do. It would probably take me about six months, but I could, I could set my life up in such a way that I would not have to work anymore. I have enough investments and passive streams of income. And like I said, I would have to, I’d have to move some things around again, not, not no need to get into the tactical level because this isn’t necessarily a wealth building podcast that I’m trying to do right now, but I could set it up to where I don’t have to work anymore.

Working would be completely optional. And why not do that? You know, why not just be done? But the reason I don’t do that is because I would have to, I would almost have a fixed income at that point, right? Like I, I could still work on things and work on growing a business, but I would kind of have this fixed income that supports our life. But I want to keep swinging. Like I want to keep going.

discussion on the infinite game of business and why it’s about continuous play, not winning

There’s no real reason for me to stop. And so when I get questions like that, I just, I almost don’t understand them. And I want to, the reason I want to do this is because I have some things that drive me, but ultimately I don’t really know what drives me. I don’t know why I just want to keep going, but I do want to keep going. And that’s the only thing I know is that I enjoy playing the game and I want to keep playing the game.

And if you’re like me, I want you to know that’s okay. Because I’m not sitting here saying like, Hey, I have, you know, the reason I, I think that the person asking the question, they want some sort of answer where I’m like, well, it’s about legacy and my children’s children’s children’s children. You know, I’m, I want some legacy for my kids, maybe their grandkids and maybe their kids. I mean, my grandkids, their kids, but I mean, I don’t have these like ideas that I can create some sort of legacy that’s going to be, you know, around 200 years from now, that’s just not going to happen.

It just doesn’t happen historically. So that’s not what drives me. I don’t have something like that’s driving me, but I do know I want to play the game and that’s okay. A lot of entrepreneurs just want to play the game. But the more I thought about it, because I got asked the question, there were a few things that came to mind. One is a quote. It’s my favorite quote. It’s something that really drives me internally and it’s hell on earth would be to meet the man or the person you could have been.

reflection on personal motivation and the fear of not reaching potential

That drives me. I don’t think about it all the time. That’s not a quote like I, I have stapled anywhere. Maybe I’ll put it on my wall at some point, but it’s something I think about all the time. I always have kind of thought like there’s this, there’s this version of me that’s, that’s possible and I want to be the best version of me. And the reason I love entrepreneurship so much is because it forces me to be a better human and the more I focus on myself, my family balance, the more my business grows.

I also, I have to learn about businesses can constantly changing. It just entrepreneurship for me is the perfect spot for me. It can be stressful. It can be hard. Yes. But ultimately what I’m doing is I’m, I’m playing a game where I feel challenged. I would not feel challenged. Like when I was in the military, I did not feel challenged because I always felt like I was being held back by my superiors. Like they, there was some game I had to play.

I had to, I just sit around and wait. I had to do something else. I’m not saying the military is not challenging. It has its own set of challenge, but what I’m talking about is specifically for me, it just wasn’t a good fit. It wasn’t a good fit for me to be there longterm because I didn’t feel like it was making the best use of, you know, bettering me in every single area. Again, no shots at the military, no shots at anybody in the military listening to this.

Everyone is different, but I just feel like entrepreneurship is different. It’s had to, it’s challenged me in so many ways to deal with anxiety, to deal with mindset stuff, to deal with growth and financial issues. It’s like, it’s helped me face so many things and become better in so many ways. I just want to keep playing that game. That’s it. I just want to keep playing that game and I never want to, I never want to know the person I could have been because I can guarantee if there was this near perfect version of me and I met them, even right now I would still be unhappy.

I’d be like, damn it. They are so much better than me because I know I’m not perfect. But this idea that I can be better and I continually can get better, that drives me. I just want to get better. So anyway, all of that is me saying, it’s okay to not know why you’re still playing the game, but knowing you just want to play the game. That’s why business is called the infinite game. The only rule of the game is to try and play the game as long as you can.

rethinking motivation beyond financial goals, what really drives us?

That’s all business is. If you haven’t read Simon Sinek’s book, The Infinite Game, that’s basically the main takeaway is we are playing infinite games, like we are playing games that just go on forever. And the only way to stay in it is to continue to play. There is no winning. There’s no, oh, you made that much money. You win. Oh, you got that many customers. You win. You helped that many people. You win. That doesn’t exist.

The only thing that exists in business is the ability to play the game and to keep playing. You can decide to stop playing at some point, and I probably will. I don’t know when that will be, but you can decide to quit playing at any point in time. I am nowhere close to ready for that. I just want to keep playing. And if you’re not 100% sure why you’re playing, but you know you just want to play, I just want everyone to know that it’s okay.

conclusion: understanding your ‘why’ is crucial for sustained motivation and engagement in business

But you might want to spend some time on that if you don’t have some other reason. If you’re not like me, you’re like, I don’t just want to play the game to play the game. Like I want to make a certain amount of money. I want to retire. I want to, like, I have friends who are like, no, at the age of 55, I’m done working and here’s my plan to get there. And like, I’ll be financially, I’m like, ugh, sounds so boring.

I just don’t want to do that. Like that just doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. What can we build? What can we create? How can we get better? But my point being, what drives you? If things got really, really hard, why would you keep going? For me, if you read between the lines, it’s some sort of weird, like desire to be better. Like ultimately, that’s, I don’t know where it came from. It’s in me. I was born with it.

But for you, what is it? You might be like me, awesome. Let’s just keep, let’s just keep playing the game. Let’s get better. But maybe there’s something else. Maybe there’s a specific reason that keeps you going. Maybe it is your kids. Maybe it is a specific goal, a monetary thing. But ask yourself, once you get there, if it is just one specific goal, what’s after that? Are you done? You might be done. That’s fine. But what if you’re not done?

There’s something else that’s driving you. And I want you to try and find it because once you realize what it is, you can optimize for it. And when you can optimize for it, you’ll know why you’re doing what you’re doing every single day. And that’s what we all need as entrepreneurs. We need a reason to get up and do this. It’s hard. It’s hard at every level, at every stage, at every income. It’s hard. It’s always going to be hard.

But it’s a game. It’s a hard game. I enjoy playing. But if you don’t enjoy playing, what else is driving you? Because you need to have an answer to that question ultimately, even if it is, I don’t really know. I just want to play the game. But have that answer. Because when you have that answer, you will be playing the infinite game. You will be playing the game. And the longer you can play the game, the more you are winning because that’s the only thing there is, is playing the game.

So spend some time thinking, why keep going? If you had all the money you could ever want, why keep going? Why does Elon Musk keep doing what he’s doing? Why keep going? Sit, think about that one, and try harder.