How Nietzsche Taught Me the Truth About Building a Business

Amor Fati

Every time I run an Ultimate Outcome Meeting inside The Machine Method, I’m reminded of the same truth.

People rarely start a business just for money. They start because they want meaning.

This week, after two new onboarding calls, that truth hit me again. So today I want to share it with you.

LFG. 🔥

What Is An Ultimate Outcome?

Defining your ultimate outcome is an exercise that my business coach taught me years ago. The idea is to determine exactly what you are working toward so that you can make decisions based on whether they move you closer to or further from your ultimate outcome.

During this exercise, we get deep.

We talk about fears, desires, and wants, but most importantly, we talk about why you want to start a business and become financially secure.

One thing I find fascinating about these meetings is that it’s never about “I want more money because I want to buy things.”

There’s always a deeper desire and a deeper purpose.

In almost every case, you want to build a business because it will give you purpose, gratification, and a sense of accomplishment.

Yes, you want to make money. Yes, you want more control over your income and freedom in your life.

But that’s not really why you want to build a business. You do it because you have a calling to create something that is uniquely yours. You do it because it’s hard, and because doing something hard makes you feel alive.

You do it because you want to prove to yourself that you can.

How I’ve Been Influenced By Nietzsche

After hearing so many entrepreneurs describe their reasons for building something hard, I started thinking about Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher who understood better than anyone that struggle is what gives life meaning.

Nietzsche was a 19th century thinker who has always impacted me. I’ve loved his ideas about suffering, the beauty within it, and the depth of meaning that comes from doing hard things.

He believed that life’s meaning is forged through struggle. He rejected comfort and conformity, seeing suffering as the raw material of transformation, the very process that turns weakness into strength.

Recently, I listened to an incredible three part series on How To Take Over The World by my friend Ben Wilson about Nietzsche. It reinvigorated my belief in his view of the human condition and what we should strive for in life.

You are meant to carry a heavy load.

You are not designed to drift through life like a leaf in the breeze. You are meant for more, and you know it because all of us have an inner calling to do something we currently don’t believe we can do.

I’ve Seen This Over And Over Again

I see Nietzsche’s ideas play out in real time every week during these calls. Every entrepreneur I talk to is wrestling with the same paradox, the desire for freedom that only comes through discipline and struggle.

One new member is a bookkeeper who wants to build a bookkeeping business.

The other has lived a beautiful life story and wants to share it with other women in hopes of inspiring them and helping others deal with trauma.

Both of these new members want to make money, travel, and have the freedom that more income provides.

But that’s not really why they want to start a business. It’s not really why you want to start a business either.

You want to do it because it’s hard and because of the accomplishment you will feel once you build something that is uniquely your own.

Nietzsche called this feeling Amor Fati. It’s that moment when you have done something unthinkable or endured a difficult challenge, and for a brief instant, life’s meaning comes into focus.

That moment of triumph. That moment when all the suffering that once felt unbearable suddenly becomes worth it.

I feel this from time to time. I felt it when I bought my Audi. I felt it when Jules and I climbed a mountain in Lofoten, Norway. I felt it when I would wake up at 4 a.m. and watch my newborn son sleep on top of my wife. I would just sit there and watch them, and all the suffering I had endured put my life together with absolute clarity.

As you read this, I hope you take a moment to look inward and find what you are truly searching for. What is the grand accomplishment you wish to achieve, and what mountain are you truly climbing.

“Examine the lives of the best and most fruitful men and nations, and ask yourselves whether a tree which is to grow proudly to heaven can dispense with storms and weather.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Be afraid. Fail. Feel hopeless and worthless and unable to endure. Yet, I hope you are blessed with the pain of hardship, because that gift of desperation will make your moment of triumph that much more beautiful.

I hope you find the courage to go forth.

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I’ll Teach You How To Build A Seven Figure Business

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from my life as an entrepreneur, it’s this.

ENTREPRENUERSHIP IS NOT COMPLICATED.

Internet gurus love to talk about “frameworks, secrets, and insights.” The reality is that every business follows the same exact process in order to generate sales, build internal systems, and scale.

I have broken this process down into six steps, which I call The Machine Method.

If you’re serious about starting an online business, I will guide you on your quest to seven figures.

Welcome to the machine. 🤖