Why the Neanderthals Died Out (And Why Your Business Won’t)

Which is more important to you: seeking pleasure or avoiding pain?

I ask because I was recently listening to one of Tony Robbins old CDs, and at one point he starts talking about how everyone on Earth has two major motivation systems: seeking pleasure or avoiding pain.Key Label Concept

He even points out that everyone has a dominant system between those two…so that you can sort people into Seekers and Avoiders.

Now, he makes it very clear that there’s nothing wrong with either type. In fact, he explains that it’s very important to know when you’re selling to a Seeker and when you’re selling to an Avoider, so that you can adjust your pitch accordingly.

However, when he starts talking about himself as a Seeker, as a possibility-driven person, I can’t help but compare myself to him and see if that applies to me as well.

And as much as it humbles me to admit it…I think I might be more of an Avoider in my natural state. I’ve taught myself to see more possibility in the world, but I don’t think I started that way.

This is important, because I think a lot of people think you MUST be possibility-driven to become a great entrepreneur…but that’s not necessarily true. There’s an important nuance to it that I want to explore today.

When I think of some of the most successful entrepreneurs alive right now, many of them I personally respect or even know as friends, I’m struck by how many of them talk about success in terms of what they’re avoiding.

They’re avoiding going back to the poverty they grew up with.

They’re avoiding a mental state of believing they are weak and incapable.

They’re avoiding the thought of their spouses and children ever having to suffer from lack of resources.

And even though they’ve learned to visualize and seek out possibilities in their lives and businesses, they’re still aware of what they are avoiding. In fact, those avoidances are an important part of their driving force.

Why Possibility Matters

 

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to create something of immense value to other people.

That doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel. (In fact, it’s very important that you model success and build off the knowledge that others have uncovered.)

But on some level, every entrepreneur needs to create something that didn’t exist yet when they first showed up. They need to give their customers and clients some magic spark that puts their product or service in a completely different category than the rest of the market.

And in order to do that, they need to visualize the possibility first. They need to look at the basic materials in front of them and realize that they can be so much more than the sum of their parts. 

So yes, every entrepreneur needs to be able to spot possibilities…but there’s no rule anywhere that says this needs to be their natural state.

Building Your Possibility Muscle

 

People who are naturally avoidant can build up their possibility-spotting over time by treating it like a muscle: you start by doing what you can actually do right now, you do that consistently, and then you gradually build up to greater challenges.

Look, as much as I want EVERYONE who lands on this blog to one day be a hugely successful entrepreneur, I understand that not all of you reading this can picture that yet.3d render of large pit

And I don’t blame you. I know what it’s like to be at the bottom of a deep, dark pit of pessimism and scarcity and self-blame.

I get that you can’t escape that pit overnight, because I know I didn’t. Heck, in many ways I’m still working on it.

Still, I know how much BETTER and BRIGHTER my life has become since I started making a conscious effort to see more possibility in the world, and I hope to help you experience that too.

My technique involved cutting negative people out of my life, pouring myself into my businesses, and paying close attention to positive-minded mentors and thinkers like Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, and Tom Hopkins.

Your technique might be different. Your technique might be faster or slower than mine.

If you find it motivating and exciting to stop where you are right now and say “I’m going to run a 7 Figure Business one day, even though I’m flat broke right now!” then great! Say it as loud as you can!

But if you find that too intimidating or unrealistic…start with a change in thinking that you can manage.

Maybe for you it’s “One day I won’t have to worry about missing rent.”

Or maybe it’s simply “I’ll be okay. I will get through this. My future will be better.”

The Key to Motivation

 

It’s one thing to identify the change you need to make in life. Actually creating that change is a completely different beast.

And the thing that trips up most people, paradoxically, is that they obsess over the HOW of making the change and end up forgetting about the WHY.

Obviously the HOW is important…but you can’t live there 24/7. The HOW part of anything in life will quickly become a rabbit hole if you don’t remember to tie it back to your vision.

In fact, “busy work” is really just a form of HOW that’s missing it’s WHY. It’s what happens when you pat yourself on the back and call yourself “productive” for simply doing more and more research on topics you already know and polishing aspects of your business that are already well-polished.

HOW should be your vehicle to WHY. It should not become a tool for maintaining the status quo.Old Style Why?

Because the truth is, WHY is where your willpower comes from. WHY is what gets you through the most difficult, most uncomfortable, most necessary parts of HOW.

So the key to motivation is to find the right WHY and stick with it.

WHY You’re Not a Neanderthal

 

Ah yes, the Neanderthals (you were wondering when I would get to this, weren’t you?)

The funny thing about Neanderthals is that they weren’t really that different from us biologically…and yet their population never exploded the same way Homo Sapiens did.

Why?

It wasn’t because they were poorly adapted…because the truth is, humans aren’t that well-adapted either. You compare us to the rest of the mammal kingdom, and we’re slower, squishier, more delicate, and more generalized than the rest of them. Neanderthals were pretty much the same way, except they were slightly better built for the cold.

Of course, human beings are extremely intelligent…but so were Neanderthals! They were using tools at the same time we were, and they had physically larger brains than we did (that doesn’t really translate into greater brain power, but it is a funny fact).

So what was the difference? What separated Homo Sapiens from Neanderthals allowed us to completely dominate the Earth?

Scientists still debate this question all the time…but I recently heard one theory that I find especially convincing and useful…

In the entire history of their species, Neanderthals only ever lived on one tiny little band of the Earth, stretching from modern-day Spain, through Europe, and into the plains of Russia.

Homo Sapiens? We spread like wild fire. We quickly spread all over the globe.

The theory goes that Homo Sapiens just had this extreme instinct for exploration. There are stories of early Homo Sapiens building boats and heading out to sea with no destination in mind. For all they knew, the entire sea could have been empty, but they went out anyway, just to check.

While Neanderthals were sitting pretty in their own native territory, Homo Sapiens were planting themselves all over the globe. By sheer blunt force and determination, Homo Sapiens showed up EVERYWHERE and found ways to adapt to whatever they found.

So what’s the lesson here?

Change is Survival

 

The lesson here is that you should behave like your Homo Sapiens ancestors and avoid going extinct like the Neanderthals.Neanderthal skull

If you’re an avoidance-driven person, it can be very tempting to cling to what you have already and never change it, because at least now you have something that kind of works…

BUT THE STATUS QUO IS THE PATH TO EXTINCTION! IF YOU WANT TO AVOID DEATH, IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE, YOU MUST CONSTANTLY ADAPT!

And if you think I’m being harsh here, trust me, I’m doing you a huge favor. I’m giving you the ultimate, most primal WHY for embracing change and turning yourself into the possibility-chasing entrepreneur you deserve to be.

Change is scary! I’m aware of that fact! But you don’t win anything by avoiding it. The truth is the opposite: you win EVERYTHING by embracing change, and by changing your life ON YOUR TERMS before the world changes it for you.

You want something to avoid? How about you avoid stagnation? How about you avoid disappointing your future self? How about you avoid letting down the people who depend on you?

You’re allowed to make mistakes during the process. You’re allowed to make the leap before you know what you’re doing. Heck, you’re even allowed to still feel scared while you’re doing it.

The one thing you’re not allowed to do is stand still. I for one am not going to permit that. I want you to thrive like the awesome Homo Sapiens you are!

Committed to your success,

Bedros

P.S. If you’ve got a business that’s doing okay right now, but you want to bring it to the next level so that it survives and THRIVES, then I highly recommend you check out my 7 Figure Mastermind program. The level of marketing, selling, and business development knowledge here is mind-blowing on it’s own, but I think you’ll truly be moved by the hands-on motivation your mentors and fellow members will provide you. Check it out today!