212: I'm 37. If I Was 20 Again, Here's How I'd Fix My Mindset
May 27, 2025
try harder
If I could sit down with the 20-year-old version of myself, there’s one thing I’d tell him before anything else: success starts with a mindset shift. Not tactics. Not tools. Not hustle. It starts in your head.
I’m now a 37-year-old entrepreneur with multiple appearances on the Inc. 500 list. I’ve built successful companies, led incredible teams, and created the life I once thought was impossible. But here’s the truth—I got here way slower than I should have. And the biggest reason? My mindset sucked.
If you’re trying to move faster in life or business, these two mindset shifts might be exactly what you need.
1. Let Go of Broken Ideas and Outdated Stories
I used to believe success was for “other people.” I held on to strings—tiny mental scraps—like old stories about money, marketing, and what I was capable of. These were beliefs I inherited from people around me or developed through fear and failure. And they were ruining my momentum.
There’s a story I love from Donald Hall’s Strings Too Short to Be Saved, where a man finds a box of tiny bits of string labeled exactly that: "strings too short to be saved." It’s a perfect metaphor for how we live—clinging to old thoughts and habits that are useless, but familiar.
The mindset shift here is simple: If your belief isn’t serving you, it’s hurting you.
I had to let go of:
The belief that marketing wasn’t for me
The story that entrepreneurship was only for a special kind of person
The idea that ambition was greedy or selfish
Once I cut those mental strings, everything changed.
2. Your Mind Is More Powerful Than You Realize
We’ve all heard that “mindset is everything,” but how often do we actually think about how powerful our brain is?
Let me give you a real, non-woo-woo example. In 2018, researchers ran a study where people were told (falsely) that they had “bad” genes related to performance and health. Even though it wasn’t true, those people performed worse in follow-up tests. Meanwhile, people told they had “good” genes—even if they didn’t—performed better.
Why? Because they believed it.
That’s the kind of mindset shift I wish I had known earlier. You are not your genetics. You are not your past. And your thoughts—those little stories you whisper to yourself—are shaping your outcomes, whether you like it or not.
It’s not about manifesting. It’s about programming your own system to work in your favor.
How to Make the Mindset Shift Today
Here’s what I recommend if you want to start shifting your mindset today:
Audit your stories: What are you telling yourself about success, money, effort, or failure? Are those stories helping you move forward or holding you back?
Program your thoughts: This doesn’t need to be woo-woo. Just state your reality: “I am learning marketing so I can grow my business.” Say it daily.
Challenge limiting beliefs: Don’t accept your thoughts as truth. If you believe you’re “not good at sales,” ask, “Where did I learn that? Is it actually true?”
Feed your mind better inputs: Podcasts, books, conversations. Feed it like your performance depends on it—because it does.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Time-Stamped Show Notes
(Note: Timestamps include a 30-second intro)
00:30 – Introduction: Why success came slower than it should have
01:15 – The metaphor of “strings too short to be saved”
02:45 – How limiting beliefs about money and marketing held me back
04:10 – The power of letting go of broken ideas
05:35 – A scientific study that shows how beliefs shape performance
07:30 – Practical ways to reprogram your mindset
09:00 – The mindset difference between high performers and everyone else
10:40 – Final advice to my 20-year-old self (and you)
