Control Who Influences Your Success
Let me hit you with some truth that most entrepreneurs aren't ready to hear.
You're never going to feel like you've "made it."
Every time you open Instagram, someone's flashing a bigger deal, a nicer car, a fancier watch.
And just like that, everything you've built feels... small.
So what do you do?
You chase.
You grind.
You convince yourself that once you hit that next milestone, THEN you'll feel successful.
Spoiler alert: That feeling never comes.
I know because I've been there.
At 28, I was drowning in $2.5 million of DEBT.
Not because I wasn't making money, but because I was building someone else's version of success.
I was chasing ghosts, trying to impress people I didn't even care about with material items I didn't even need.
And it nearly broke me.
Here's what nobody tells you about success: The more you chase it, the faster it runs.
Take a hard look at who you're letting influence your decisions:
That guy selling "financial freedom" while leveraging himself to the eyeballs
That influencer showing off their "passive income" lifestyle that's actually built on debt
That guru promising overnight success while hiding their own failures
The question isn't if you're being influenced. It's WHO you're letting do the influencing.
Every piece of content you consume, every person you follow, every "expert" you listen to; they're all shaping your definition of success.
And if you're not intentional about it, you'll end up climbing a ladder that's leaning against the wrong wall.
Here's something I did that changed everything: I created a personal board of directors for my life.
Just like a business surrounds itself with the right advisors, you need to surround yourself with people who:
Align with your actual values
Challenge your thinking
Hold you accountable to the life YOU want to live (not the one social media says you should want)
So ask yourself, who deserves a seat at your table?
Do you want advice from someone drowning in debt to finance a luxury lifestyle, or someone building sustainable wealth?
Do you want to model yourself after the entrepreneur who never sees their family, or the one who's built a business that supports their life?
If the people influencing you aren't aligned with where you actually want to go, it's time to clean house.
Since launching Relentless, I've had over 1,000 conversations with entrepreneurs who are stuck in the same trap.
Here's the most mind-blowing realization:
Most people already have the life they once dreamed of, they're just too busy chasing the next thing to notice it.
Remember when you started your business? What was that dream?
Financial freedom?
More time with family?
Making an impact?
Building something that matters?
Chances are, you've already achieved some version of that dream. But instead of celebrating, you moved the goalposts.
Take 30 minutes today and do this:
Look at the last 20 social accounts you've engaged with. Do they make you feel inspired or inadequate?
Review the last 5 big purchases you made. Were they aligned with your values or were you trying to keep up?
List the 5 people who influence your business decisions most. Would you trade lives with them? (And I mean their ACTUAL lives, not their Instagram version)
Be brutally honest with yourself.
Are you listening to people who push you to spend more, borrow more, and risk more just to create an illusion of success?
Are you following voices that equate happiness with material upgrades?
If so, it's time to cut the noise and get back to what actually matters.
The biggest shift I made was moving from chasing what I thought I needed to choose what I actually wanted.
I stopped letting outside voices tell me what success should look like.
I stopped making financial decisions based on ego and comparison.
I started asking myself real questions before every big decision:
Will this purchase or investment actually last?
Is this a need or a want?
If it's a want, is it a short-term impulse or something that truly aligns with my goals?
That shift changed everything.
You don't need to keep running after the next income level, the next status symbol, or the next version of success that was never yours to begin with.
Instead, take control.
Define success on your own terms.
Build a life and business that actually makes you happy; not one that just looks good on someone else's feed.
And most importantly, be relentless about who you let influence you.
The wrong voices will keep you running on a hamster wheel.
The right voices will help you build something real.
The choice is yours.
To your freedom,
mm
P.S. If you're tired of chasing someone else's version of success and ready to build your own, reply "FREEDOM" to this email. I've got something special for the entrepreneurs who are ready to get off the hamster wheel.
