What are you trying to prove?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our EOS Worldwide Core Value of Grow or Die.

While it’s one of our Core Values, I don’t think it’s unique to EOS.

After working with hundreds of entrepreneurs myself and knowing there are tens of thousands more throughout the EOS Implementer^® Community, I’ve come to believe growth is one of the few things we all have in common.

Entrepreneurs are constantly searching for ways to get better. They’re reading books, taking classes, joining groups, listening to podcasts, and looking for the next idea that will help them improve themselves, their businesses, and the lives of the people around them.

What Drives Someone to Keep Growing?

Is it nature? Is it nurture? Or is it something else entirely?

That question led me to Dr. Douglas Brackmann’s book Driven. His theory is that some people are biologically wired toward novelty-seeking, persistence, and risk-taking.

Whether he’s completely right, I don’t know. What I do know is that the drive exists.

Then I had another conversation that gave me a different way to think about it.

Rectify or Magnify?

On a recent episode of Hitting the Ceiling, I was talking with Eric Holtzclaw about what drives entrepreneurs. He described two different types.

The first he called Rectify entrepreneurs. They’re trying to prove something. Maybe someone told them they’d never amount to anything. Maybe they were underestimated. So, they spend years proving everyone else wrong.

The second he called Magnify entrepreneurs. They believe they were put on this earth to do something meaningful, and they’re driven by the opportunity to make that contribution.

The more I sat with those two ideas, the more I realized I could see both in my own life.

I’ll Show You

When I was twelve years old, an aunt told me I would never amount to anything and that I’d end up homeless and poor like my grandfather.

My grandfather was homeless. There was a lot of alcoholism on my dad’s side of the family, and I remember looking for him under bridges and in gutters so we could give him Christmas and birthday presents.

Her words hit something deep inside me. My response became simple:

I’ll show you.

And, for the most part, I did.

Looking back now, I think Eric and Doug are probably both onto something. Some people are naturally wired with a greater drive to grow, learn, and take risks. Life shapes how that drive gets expressed.

For me, it became a desire to prove someone wrong.

Moving Beyond Rectify

The challenge is that I don’t think Rectify is enough. It gets you moving. It gives you energy. It can even help you accomplish remarkable things.

But eventually, I think every entrepreneur has to move beyond “I’ll show you” and toward “Here’s why I’m here.”

When your purpose becomes bigger than proving someone wrong, your capacity to keep growing gets bigger too.

So that’s the question I’ve been sitting with this week: What’s really driving you?

Are you trying to prove something? Or build something?