Family Olympics
The Most Dangerous of All Games
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In her 1980 book “Overcoming the Fear of Success,” Martha Friedman described her “Family Olympics” paradigm which is a metaphor that refers to the way in which families can unintentionally create an environment that promotes competition and undermines support among family members. She had a history of creating roadblocks for herself until she was 56 years old and I feared that I was on the same track. I mean, my company’s rise was meteoric. After starting the company with virtually no capital, within three years we employed ten full-time people and had 2000 accounts with a very high percentage of repeat business and rather than being elated, I was depressed.
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I began to question my interest in the further development of our sales force and also began to understand why success had created problems for me. In Friedman’s book she explains how she was categorized and labeled a certain way as it related to her siblings and parents. And the reason that she didn’t excel and become a doctor until she was 56 was because she allowed the paradigm to govern her life. The family forces to keep you in place are extremely powerful and when you permit yourself to grow beyond them, it creates a lot of friction from all of the affected family members.
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领英推荐
My book, “Success and Self-Discovery” describes my journey as an entrepreneur. I started a company with only $300 and built it into a million dollar company.?This book is a must-read for anyone who was belittled by their parents or other authority figures and labeled in a way that created low expectations and even lower self-esteem, both of which have kept them from realizing their full potential. It includes much more, though, and describes how I overcame many unexpected and ?intertwined personal and business obstacles in order to lead a more fulfilled and profitable life.
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This business memoir is a testament to the power of determination, innovation, passion, and resilience and includes invaluable how-to sales, marketing, business, and personal advice. I have been in business since 1976 and am still serving many clients who I’ve had for over 46 years. I hope my book will inspire readers to become entrepreneurs. Most importantly, I want to help them avoid some of the pitfalls and painful mistakes that I’ve experienced throughout my own entrepreneurial journey.
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