Have you ever felt like doubt or fear was holding you back?
Have you ever felt like your dreams were just too big, too risky, or maybe even impossible?
I have!
I’ve been there.
If you know me well, that may be hard to believe.
But, there was a time in my life when my fear of failure and self-doubts weighed me down, and my dreams felt like distant, unattainable wishes—amazing ideas that I thought would probably never actually come true.
Life wasn’t easy.
Most days, I was just trying to get by, living paycheck to paycheck—and that was on the good weeks!
But then, one day, everything changed because of one simple shift I made. At the time, I didn’t realize such a slight shift would change my life forever, but it did. And it’s a shift you can make, too.
In this article, I want to share my story of how I overcame my own personal fear and doubt to turn my dreams into reality.
Believe
First, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this article.
I also want to take a moment to remind you of something incredibly important.
Something I truly believe:
Whatever your dream is, you are capable of achieving it.
Yes, YOU!
When you look at successful people, you see their achievements—but what you don’t see is the work, dedication, persistence, and determination that got them through the seemingly impossible barriers to success.
I believe that you are far more capable than you’ve been led to believe.
And I want you to believe that, too.
I want you to believe in yourself. Because that dream, that goal, that big idea—whatever it is—you can actually achieve it.
This is the short version of my story and what I learned.
I hope you find something here that will help you find the courage to keep going or take the next step necessary to reach your dreams.
I know you can.
Because hey, if I – a poor boy from Michigan – could do it, so can you!
My Struggles Before the Dream
Let me take you back about 25 years.
Fu Mei was pregnant with our first son, Seamus, and we had just moved to Florida after I had been fired by my best friend.
I was buried in debt, and I was struggling to make ends meet.
We moved into a tiny apartment; I drove an old, beat-up Honda Civic with so many miles on it that it barely held together. And I lucked out and found a new job at a consulting company.
At the time, my dream was simple:
I wanted to be financially free and use my success to help others.
For me, being successful was not enough and being financially free was only a step in the right direction.
Growing up in a small town in Michigan and facing my own share of tough times, my real dream was and had always been to help others achieve success.
But how was I supposed to do that if I myself was drowning?
Between everything that was happening in my life, the debt, the stress, and the feeling of running in place and going nowhere, my dream felt like a fantasy.
Self-doubt crept in, whispering that it was impossible, that I wasn’t good enough, and that life was stacked against me.
Fear told me to hold myself back, keep my head down, and not take any risks – “I could easily fail.”
The Moment of Decision
One day, sitting at my desk, something inside me snapped.
The thousands of thoughts and worries consuming my mind were silenced, my busy day became calm, and out of nowhere, I made a decision!
I decided:
By the time I was 40—just two years from then—I would make my first million dollars.
It seemed crazy.
It was crazy.
I wasn’t making anywhere near that, and I had no plan for how I’d achieve it. But for whatever reason, on that day, and at that time, the decision hit me, and I knew I had to make it happen.
I had no choice.
I remember sitting there at my desk, as I wrote “$1,000,000” on a piece of paper and circled it twice!
Little did I know that exact moment was my turning point.
Deciding I would make a million dollars gave me a goal, clarity, and something to hold onto.
For the first time, I had an exact dream to focus on and a purpose behind it – to help others find success.
Not again!?…
Now… that’s not the end of the story.
Without the decision, I would have never made it. But let’s just say things didn’t quite “fall into place” right after my decision.
On the contrary, things got worse.
Not long after making my decision, I was fired from my job – again!
In one month, I had been fired twice!
Before that I had never been fired before. I never had the experience of being told: “Jim, get out! We don’t need you.”
I was crushed!
I had to support my family, keep up with my payments, and I had no job and no income.
Now… imagine the fear and doubt that hit me.
I had just decided to become financially free, and almost immediately after, I lost my job.
With the weight of mounting responsibilities on my shoulders, my dream began to feel like it was slipping further out of reach.
But, for whatever reason, my decision to make a million dollars and then help others gave me a strange sense of calm.
When I made that decision, I knew I had to start my own business—I’d never make a million dollars working for someone else.
However, I was scared to start something new and unknown. I was afraid to take a risk. Self-doubt left me clinging to the comfort of being an employee and the predictability of my weekly paycheck.
Looking back at it, losing my job suddenly became somewhat of a godsend, although it didn’t seem like it at the time.
My New Start Was A Disaster
Three days after being fired, I found a new job as a sales manager for an energy sales company.
I had no background in energy sales, and the little sales experience I did have came from many years ago when I sold dry cleaning and auto repair discount coupons door-to-door in Washington, D.C.
I had to learn a new business skill, which wasn’t easy. But my new job gave me room to breathe and money to pay all my bills.
Suddenly, my dream of becoming successful and helping others was reignited.
I worked tirelessly, and things moving.
My paycheck grew as I increased the sales, but it was nowhere near what I needed to reach my goal.
Luckily, my rapid success in this new venture led to another opportunity—one I knew I couldn’t pass up.
I found an investor who believed in me and was willing to lend me the capital to start my own energy sales company.
It was risky.
My doubts and fears screamed at me. But I had to seize the moment.
While I succeeded as a sales manager and employee, I never owned my own business, and I was starting from scratch.
I had no clients, no safety net, and no guarantee of success.
The early days were grueling.
Fueled by only two things: a phone and my determination, I spent hours personally calling and faxing potential energy suppliers.
Rejection after rejection hit me like a wave, but I kept going.
With every setback, my fear and doubt grew, looming over me.
But I kept going.
Finally, after what felt like forever, but was only a few weeks of 10-12 hour days, I landed my first client.
I could hardly believe it. How exciting! We were in business!
I quickly hired a team, ran to Home Depot, purchased every phone they had, set up some tables and chairs in a room we had rented, put together a sales script, and got to work.
Things started to move in the right direction, and we were making sales immediately!
I thought I had made it.
I thought all my hard work finally paid off.
My dream started to look real.
But life had its way of throwing curveballs at me, and I definitely didn’t see this one coming.
After 30 days, that client dropped me—without warning and without paying their invoice.
I found myself facing even more challenges—not just my own, but the responsibility of covering payroll with no income to support it, relying on my investor’s goodwill.
That should have been enough to break me, but it didn’t.
Pushing Through the Setbacks
I’ve been called stubborn sometimes; this time, it was with good reason.
So, I picked up the phone again, and after more phone calls and more rejections, I found our second client.
Call it luck, persistence, or whatever you want, but I was back in the game!
I hired more people, trained them on the new sales script, and started selling again.
Now… if the first failure wasn’t enough to stop me, this second one should have put the nail in my coffin.
After another 30 days, the exact same thing happened. My second client dropped me and didn’t pay.
At that point, it felt like the world was telling me to give up.
I was three months in, nearly out of the money I had borrowed from my investor to start the business, and my batting average so far was zero.
My doubts screamed louder than ever.
My fears filled my thoughts.
But I didn’t stop.
I had decided that I would become financially free and help others do the same.
If I let my fears and doubts stop me, I’d never make it. I could not give up and could not let setbacks stop me.
Plus my wife and my firstborn son were counting on me to succeed.
I refused to let those fears and doubts control me.
I went back on the phones, and finally, after what seemed to be an endless number of calls and rejections, I found my third client, and things began to take off.
My third client not only paid me but they asked me to hire even more people!
Little by little, I built momentum.
Each small victory gave me the confidence to keep going.
And – to make a long story short – by the time I turned 40, I had made my first million dollars.
And, as I promised myself, over the next decade, I traveled the world, helping countless others achieve their goals and find success.
All while the business I had worked so hard to build continued to grow.
The Lessons I Learned
Looking back, the turning point was my decision to pursue my dream—despite all the fears and doubts.
And constantly reaffirming my original decision no matter what crazy obstacles came at me.
And persisting in doing the successful actions to make that decision come true.
The road wasn’t easy, but it gave me direction. And every time fear or doubt crept in, I reminded myself of my decision and pushed forward.
It all started with a decision to do or achieve something, a dream I really wanted powered by a good and intense purpose – to become financially free so I could help others do the same.
That’s precisely what I did and still do today.
Now.. what about all that fear and doubt that creep up along the way?
I learned that any time you want to grow, anytime you want to achieve a dream or goal, you will find some degree of concern, fear, or self-doubt.
It’s a natural reaction to say… “wait a minute… what is this crazy idea?”
But it’s important to know that doubts and fears are part of the process. And not to let those doubts and fears stop you from moving forward.
In my journey, I saw that doubt and fear were not signs of failure; they were signs of progress.
I realized that whenever I stepped outside my comfort zone and ventured into the unknown—which is always necessary when pursuing a dream—doubt and fear would always appear.
The secret is persistence.
And as basic as this sounds, the difference between achieving your dreams and falling short is simple:
Keep going!
Every dream and outstanding achievement starts with a decision and the courage to take the first step, even when doubt is screaming the loudest—because persistence, not perfection, turns dreams into reality.
Creating Your Success
Now I’ve told you my story- at least the short version.
I could fill many pages with all the challenges and setbacks I ran into and still run into daily and weekly.
The truth is life is full of challenges.
Any time you want to reach a dream, you will run into barriers.
And once you overcome those challenges and find victory, guess what? The journey doesn’t stop there. You’ll face the next, even greater challenge—and with it, an even greater victory.
Learn from your challenges and bask in your victories.
That’s the beautiful cycle of growth and success—it keeps going, pushing you to new heights through the doubts and fears that come up along the way.
All you have to do is hang in there!
And to help you, let me give you what I call my “secret formula,” which isn’t really that secret.
The “Secret” Formula of How I Overcame Doubts
Looking back at my life, I’ve noticed a pattern—a set of steps I followed every time I set a goal and turned it into reality.
I’ve distilled these steps into a simple formula that has helped me overcome doubt and achieve my dreams and one that I believe can help you do the same.
Your dreams don’t require perfection or fearlessness.
Achieving them doesn’t require “the perfect plan.”
It’s not about timing or having everything you need to succeed.
No one has it all figured out.
But through my journey—facing fears, battling doubts, enduring setbacks, and celebrating many victories—I’ve seen that overcoming doubts and achieving your dreams boils down to four simple principles:
DECIDE
ACT
PERSIST
CELEBRATE
A decision is where everything begins, but for it to have the strength to carry you through all the “growing pains,” it must have a meaningful purpose behind it, and here’s another secret:
Your purpose has to be bigger than yourself.
In my case, I needed to achieve financial freedom to support my family and my newborn son, Seamus. Beyond that, my dream was to help others overcome their challenges and find success. That deeper purpose is what fueled me and kept me moving forward.
It was BIGGER THAN ME.
Now… once you’ve decided to reach your dreams, you have to act.
Bluntly said – your dreams won’t achieve themselves—you need to take action.
But here’s the truth: taking action is the easy part.
The real challenge is continuing to act when things get tough and you start facing the obstacles and barriers that appear out of nowhere, creating more fear and doubt.
Taking action every single day requires aligning your lifestyle to support your dreams.
This means creating an environment where action becomes possible and sustainable.
Surround yourself with friends, family, coworkers, partners, or online mentors who support, encourage, and uplift you.
Stay motivated by surrounding yourself with positivity, and don’t hesitate to distance yourself from negative people who don’t believe in you or your dreams.
Most importantly, keep moving forward despite setbacks, fear, doubt, or obstacles—that’s where persistence comes in.
For me, persistence became easier when I truly embraced the reality of my dream – that the journey to my dream was filled with challenges that I could overcome as long as I didn’t quit.
And the fear and doubt I felt were not stop signs; they were signs that I was making progress. They told me to keep going, signaling that I was stepping outside my comfort zone and growing.
I made it a point to treat every failure as a learning opportunity—asking myself:
“What lessons can I learn from this experience?”
“How can I adjust my approach to avoid similar issues in the future?”
“What can I do to improve myself and those around me?”
To help me persist, I made it a habit to celebrate my wins, no matter how small they seemed.
I celebrated landing my first client—and every client after that.
I celebrated when I solved a problem, reached a milestone, or did better than the month before.
No matter how small, each celebration fueled my energy, kept me motivated, and reminded me to keep moving forward.
Let me repeat this:
You are capable, right now, with who you are and what you have, of achieving any dream you set your mind to—as long as you decide, take action, persist, and celebrate your wins.
The only thing standing between you and your dreams is the belief that you can achieve them, the decision to go for them, taking action, never stopping no matter how hard it gets, and not stopping when your fears start telling you it’s impossible.
As you’ve realized by now, achieving success doesn’t happen by chance—it’s the result of many actions you take.
I’ve compiled a simple checklist to help you stay on track and move closer to your dreams. Think of it as your guide to staying aligned, motivated, and persistent on your journey to success.
Checklist for Success
- Decide on your goal.
- How badly do you want it?
- What problem does it solve?
- What is the purpose behind it?
- Is the purpose bigger than you?
- Now, word it as if you’ve already achieved it.
- Write it down and keep it visible.
- Write a plan.
- Break it into smaller, doable steps, steps you can easily take.
- Start – NOW.
- Take consistent action, no matter how small Every Day.
- Embrace fear and doubt as part of the journey.
- Realize challenges are part of the process and a sign of progress.
- Learn and improve from failures and setbacks, but don’t stop.
- Keep going.
- Celebrate small victories along the way.
- Surround yourself with supportive people.
- Find a source of motivation.
- Remove negative and unsupportive people.
- Stay focused and persistent.
- Never stop believing in yourself.
What’s Your Story?
I told you my story.
Now, what’s your story?
If I could overcome my doubts and achieve my dreams, I truly believe you can, too.
Remember, you’re capable of far more than you might think, and the only thing standing between you and your dreams is the decision to take that first step.
What’s the dream that lights you up? What’s the fear or doubt that’s holding you back? Take a moment to reflect on it—and then decide that today is the day you’ll start.
I’d love to hear your story.
What are you working toward?
What challenges are you facing?
Share your journey with me—I’d be honored to cheer you on, celebrate your victories, and remind you that you’re not alone.
Here’s to believing in yourself, deciding, taking action, staying persistent, and creating the life you’ve always dreamed of. One step at a time, you will get there.
Here’s to your dreams—go make them happen.
Love,
Jim
