Brewed From Within

Anxiety

The mind is divine. It gives us superpowers, and the dots we electrochemically connect make us human. Such capacity allows us to achieve extraordinary things. At the same time, this mysterious grey matter can also hold us back and even cause havoc.

Anxiety is assuming failure in advance. As a mental cousin to fear, anticipation, worrying, and perhaps even desire, anxiety is like an unspoken agreement you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.This exhausting emotion is all in your head, yet the way anxiety affects your body is absolutely real.

For those who pursue greatness, the more we try to achieve, the tighter we wind the strings of life. When harnessed, this fuels strength, creativity, grit, and persistence. As the tension tightens, however, something is bound to break. Healthy habits and being mindful of your personal bandwidth reduces the frequency and severity of such breakdowns, but with the relentless pressure from never-ending progress, it seems impossible to completely avoid disquiet.

The most common way we attempt to manage such angst is to stop the pain by seeking reassurance. The nourishment of overthinking every scenario in an unknown future may satisfy the moment, but scratching this itch usually makes things worse. Even if we answer every possible question, the willingness to indulge the worry sets a precedent that keeps you coming back to what can become an endless loop.

An alternate approach is to acknowledge the suffering. Don’t run from it. Appreciate the relentless internal narrative you’re dealing with. Breathe. Be thankful for having something you care this much about. Find peace in knowing you’ve done your best to tip odds in your favor, but invite doubt and welcome an opportunity to be wrong. The anxiety is here and it’s dramatic, but it’s also normal. Let thoughts float by, focus your attention on what’s good, and allow time to heal the pain. Yes, this is like letting a forest fire burn without soothing it with water. It will get wild at first, but it eventually burns itself out. The scorched land is then ripe for renewal and less likely to burn again.

Extra Shot

Accepting that anxiety is inevitable may be a secret to finding equanimity.

By acknowledging anxiety, clarifying awareness helps us understand, even appreciate, the energy. This breaks the cycle and reduces the frequency of such misery. Courage over fear also adds an eagerness to lean on support systems, confirms confidence in how the pain will pass, and allows the mind to stay centered with less climactic swings.

Brewed From Within
#96 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Shifting Gears

Imagine the howl of a distant motorcycle bolting through the night. Hear the speed and wait for that clutch to drop, knowing more power awaits.

The first gear is dedicated to initiating motion within an engine. It won’t get you far, but as the red line wraps, a shift brings you into the next gear that builds on the momentum. As that next gear tops out, yet another shifts moves you farther, with higher gears that bring you to full speed.

Extra Shot

After pushing a motorcycle to 150mph, twas time to sell that bullet on wheels. A face full of wind is still invigorating, but a convertible will now suffice.

Any journey is a dance, but reaching your destination requires an ability to temporarily lose power in exchange for more lasting capacity. Whether it’s personal or in business, recognizing a limit prompts a well-timed shift in gears to keep moving forward.

Brewed From Within
#26 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago

Head Start

The entrepreneurial lifestyle resists definition.

Business owners paint with strokes of curiosity, determination, and innovation. When people build with creative ambition, experience is valuable, but the symphony of desire and attitude plays an equally important role. It takes heart to start and resilience to execute early moves, manage focus, build teams, maintain sales, and provide lasting customer service to maintain momentum.

The best part about an entrepreneurial lifestyle is that it’s accessible to everyone. This can be seen as students explore projects that transcend the classroom. It’s intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s startup founders achieving product-market fit with new ideas and others who acquire an established business.

EXTRA SHOT

This contribution was written by Sheldon Ohringer. Along with helping us buy a business, Sheldon is an investor and board member who led large sales teams, developed acquisition programs, and as CEO took a technology company public.

Starting a brand new business is one way to explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle, but buying an existing business is also an interesting way to write your own story.

While there may be a higher cost for the head start, acquiring an existing business presents an interesting side door to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Organic growth is important, but there are added benefits in augmenting internal development with external acquisitions as well. As you consider a business to buy, avoid future headaches by understanding industry requirements, such as licenses, permits, zoning, and environmental requirements. As you work with existing ownership to determine a purchase price, a valuation based on capitalized earnings, excess earnings, cash flow, and tangible assets are all methods to guide fair negotiations. In the end, the right price is one that delights the seller and excites the buyer.

As details come together, partner with legal and accounting experts who focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to document the transaction. A letter of intent, confidentiality agreement, contracts, leasing documents, financial statements, tax returns, and sales agreements are all important documents to talk with your M&A team about. Many transactions include a vesting schedule as well, so stay in tune with these details to avoid unwanted surprises.

There are a variety of strategic ways to acquire a business, but once the transition takes place, new owners are given keys to a kingdom that hails an established team, customer base, and operating procedures. As we see in the Exit section of the Results chapter in YDNTB, there will be challenges during these transitory times, but in the end, virtuous leaders listen to keep the culture balanced.

All the good that comes with a business is important to maintain, but an audit of negative aspects is important too. This focus on areas that need improvement is stressful, and concerned employees may exaggerate issues to make their own contribution seem important. To stay proportionate, talk with everyone for context, invite resolutions that may solve issues, get hands-on, and stay optimistic to keep your assessment honest and weighted against the big picture.

Searching and finding undervalued, cash-flow businesses may take time, but it serves as a viable alternative to growing a business from scratch. Intentional candor with areas to improve allows new owners to build on past success while charting a renewed vision for lasting prosperity.

Brewed From Within
#29 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago

Waiting Rooms

The waiting room is that season where you’re not where you used to be, but you’re not yet where you want to go. It’s the in-between zone. The pause before your name gets called. The place where you’re preparing for something, whether or not you think you know what’s next.

If we move our egos aside just long enough, we can see the beauty here. The waiting room is where character develops. Where preparation happens. Where we create, reflect, and release what no longer serves us.

But we want to bypass it. We grow impatient and intolerant. We think our will, our force, can push us through faster. It doesn’t work like that. You’ll only exhaust and burn yourself out. It’s easy to watch others get called before you. The mental chatter starts: When will it be my turn? Will I ever be ready? Why them and not me?

The problem with watching others is that you have no idea where they are on their journeys. You don’t know where they’ve been, where they’re being called to next, or what’s waiting for them when they get there. Their timeline is not a reflection of yours. It never was.

Everyone gets called at exactly the right time for their highest good. Not a moment sooner. Not because the universe is withholding opportunity, but because love doesn’t set us up to fail. The waiting room keeps us from walking through a doorway we’re not ready for. It’s protective. We wouldn’t hand a nine-year-old the car keys just because they felt ready to drive. Your higher wisdom knows better. That child stays in the waiting room until they’re equipped for what’s next.

EXTRA SHOT

Watch Vanessa narrate this riff on-stage!

No one wants to be in the waiting room, but everyone must pass through it. These pause points aren’t punishments; they’re where we catch our breath, integrate what we’ve learned, and prepare for what’s coming. To often, we take this wait personally. Like it’s evidence we’re not good enough, not ready enough, not deserving enough. We get frustrated. Resentful. Sometimes we even give up.

But your job is to sit in the tension of not being where you want to be without making it mean something’s wrong with you. When we are able to loosen the grip, the pause can be strategic. You can recalibrate here. Gain mastery here. Rest here. The waiting room is the bulb that leads to the flower, fertilized by your patience and who you choose to become while you wait.

EXTRA SHOT

This contribution was written by Vanessa McNeal. Vanessa is a social architect and keynote speaker who helps us transform the nervous system to lead through love.

Life is full of waiting rooms. When the time comes, we move forward and eventually we find ourselves in another waiting room. We create suffering if we believe we’ll arrive one day at a place with no more growth, no more waiting.

That’s not how it works. What would we learn by skipping the journey to reach the destination? How would we develop patience, self-trust, or resilience?

Right now is transitory, but micro-moments add up and coalesce into the story of our comprehensive progress. Waiting rooms are where we become the person who’s ready and open to what comes next.

Brewed From Within
#97 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Landing

The energy of anything new is easy to like. Along the way, while momentum creates ease, attention can slip.

Arriving at our destination took work, but the task is not complete until we stick the landing. To see this in nature, watch how birds take off quickly and fly around with ease. As they land, a final moment of attention is required. Another example is how climbers most often get injured on the way down a mountain. Fatigue and reduced focus make an impact, but beyond physical factors, accomplishments invite complacency. Whether it’s a tiny task or epic exit, a strong finish may take more than everything leading to it.

Extra Shot

Every moment is the end of something.

When it’s time to finish, make no assumptions. Stay detail-oriented to complete the sequence. Once the landing is executed, let the experience inspire renewed vitality as we shift gears and remain open to next.

Brewed From Within
#31 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago