The EntreMD Podcast

7 Reasons Why You Should NEVER Quit Your Business

• Dr. Una • Episode 449

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Are you thinking about quitting?

You’re not alone. In 2024, business closures were at an all-time high, and we need to acknowledge that it’s been an incredibly tough year for entrepreneurs. But I’m here to tell you that you can still win. You can still thrive even when things get hard, and many entrepreneurs do. 

That’s why today, I will convince you NOT to quit. 

Ready?

Let’s go! 

—

Key Takeaways: 

  • 00:00 Intro 
  • 04:22 Reason #1 
  • 07:29 Reason #2 
  • 10:00 Reason #3 
  • 13:10 Reason #4 
  • 13:53 Reason #5 
  • 15:28 Reason #6 
  • 21:23 Reason #7 
  • 25:21 Final thoughts 

Additional Resources:


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  • EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
  • EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.

To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

Speaker 1:

Do not quit. Don't quit. You have a business. It is beyond you. It's about the impact that you're going to have in the lives of the people you're called to serve. It's about the financial freedom that you're going to create for you and for your family. It's about the time freedom so you're finally free to live life on your terms. Yes, it's going to be hard, yes, it's going to take a little longer, but, my goodness, don't quit. Look at the people who've gone ahead of you. Look at the challenges that they face, and they survived it and they're here, and I'm challenging you to do the same. Hi docs, welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, dr Imna.

Speaker 1:

In 2024, business closures have been at an all-time high. I want to read some statistics for you here. It shows that for the retailers so CVS, walgreens, all of those they have shut down more than 6,000 stores in 2024 alone, and I looked at the bankruptcy filings for and I promise this is going to get better. Okay, this is going to leave you motivated and energized, but I need to get something out of the way right. Number of businesses that have filed for bankruptcy, not just the ones that shut down. These are the ones that filed for bankruptcy 22,000. And in 2023, it was 15,000. So they've reported a 16.2% rise in bankruptcy filings.

Speaker 1:

And so why am I telling you this? Because I am coming on to tell you seven reasons why you don't want to quit on your business. I want you to acknowledge the fact that it's been a challenging year for entrepreneurs. You can still thrive, you can still win. Many people are. Many of my clients are. We've had a great year. So I'm not saying you can't, but I'm acknowledging that maybe you're coming up against more resistance than you're used to, and I just want to normalize that. Let you know nothing is wrong with you. Like you know, it may be a little harder, but I'm here to challenge you and let you know that you can still win. Okay, so seven reasons not to quit.

Speaker 1:

And when I talk about quitting, I'm really talking about quitting because things are hard. Maybe it's harder to get the number of clients or patients you're used to having. It's harder, you know, to fill up your schedule. It's harder to find the team members that you want. Maybe it's just life, life showing up and it's just like, right, I can do all of this life and do this business as well.

Speaker 1:

Right, and when I say quitting, I don't just mean shutting down your business. For you it may not be shutting down your business, it may just be that you quiet quit and so the dreams that you had for your business, you quietly gave up on that and you're like let's just go in cruise control. The problem with the way the economic space is now is, if you are in cruise control, you're probably growing in reverse, you're probably pulling you backwards, right, so you're listening. Or maybe you know, like. You're like I'm going to build this team and I'm going to take this to the next level and you're just like it's hard, I don't want to deal with this, right. So on the outside it looks really great, things are working, maybe you're even growing, but you know that you're holding back so much, so much, and it's not a strategic decision to quit. It's just like this is hard, I don't want to do it.

Speaker 1:

Now. There is strategic quitting. I've done that. For instance, my private practice. There was a time we opened up a second location and we had it for a few years, maybe two years, and I decided I didn't want to do that. And it wasn't because it was hard. Entrepreneurship is hard, period right, like so. We become tougher. We don't expect it not to be hard, but I was like the culture that I'm trying to build here I have a number of projects that I prioritize above trying to replicate that culture in multiple locations with multiple managers and all. I was just like that's not what I see. That was not in line with the vision that I had, and so I had no problem strategically deciding to shut it down. But in the meantime, it was winning right, it was winning, it was profitable and all of that stuff but I was just like I don't want to do it. So, of course, you can strategically quit on things.

Speaker 1:

Well, what I'm referring to here is quitting because it's just like this is hard, I don't want to do it. Or you had a setback and you're like I don't want to deal with it, or life is lifing and you just have this pressure to go like I just can't deal. Okay, I want to show you seven reasons not to quit. So let's go. The first reason is it becomes a habit. Every time you do something, it becomes easier to do that thing. Okay, so every time you overcome a challenge and come out on the other side, you become stronger. You're able to handle more challenges. You just have this habit and when things come up, you're like challenges, we eat that for breakfast. We are champions. That's what we do.

Speaker 1:

When you quit because things are hard, you quit to relieve the pressure. You're just like I can't take it anymore. You quit to relieve the pressure. What it does is it sets you up Like the next time you come in contact with pressure, your response to that is to quit. And it's not going to be just in your business, it's going to be in every aspect of your life. And so when you have the opportunity to quit and it's not a strategic quit, it's a quit like I can't handle the pressure I want to challenge you to lean in deeper. Lean in deeper. You have the strength, you have the community, you probably have the mentors. You have the resources to go through that and I want to challenge you to do that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I want to stop here. I've done this publicly before and I want to stop here and really give a big shout out to Dr Carolina Sualdo and if you don't know her. Look for her on Instagram and follow her. She's a fertility doctor in Florida and she started her practice a little over a year ago and she is somebody that I watched go through challenge after challenge. It was hard to start her practice and get it off the ground and all the things that she had to do and all the learning curves and all of that, and she's somebody that I literally started praying for. I was like, okay, lord, you got to help her. You cannot let her quit, because I know that on the other side of this is a magical practice. She just needs to stay in it long enough. And I always tell her every time she, you know, shares a win in the she's a student of the entrepreneur business school Anytime she shares a win, I'm like big shout out to you, because she went through that and, on top of all the challenges in her business, she had some life that was lifing and what she stood, and today she has a great practice, she has a great team, you know.

Speaker 1:

She's profitable, she's paying herself and it's just a beautiful thing and she's serving people at the highest level. I love following her Instagram and because they're always, you know, gifts that her patients said you know flowers or whatever they send to her, or you know the reviews that they leave her, and all of that is just beautiful, the work that she does. But it was hard. It's hard in the beginning, but I'm so proud of her for not quitting because then, when other challenges show up now she has become this person who, when challenges show up, she's like, okay, how can I handle this? Who do I need to talk to? She raises her hand in the group to ask a question. She cold calls other people in the Entree and the Business School. How do I do this? Because I think and she'll tell me maybe after she listens to this episode that in her mind there's just this thing of of course, there's a solution somewhere, right, like it becomes a habit. Okay, it becomes a habit. So that's the first thing not quitting for pressure sake, because it becomes a habit and it shows up everywhere, okay, which is not something that we want.

Speaker 1:

The second reason not to quit is because in quitting, you give up an opportunity to develop mental toughness. Now, it is very cool to meditate. I meditate. It's very cool to you know, say you know, like affirmations or your power words and stuff like that. I do that. It's really cool. It's really cool to visualize what life can look like on the other side. It's amazing. I do that too.

Speaker 1:

But your mental toughness is built when tough times show up, when the challenges show up. Think about challenges, problems like weights in the gym, right, and so you go, you lift the weight. It hurts, but that's how you grow, that's how you get the muscle. You do not build muscle and comfort Like that's just not the way it works. And so the mental toughness that you're going to need for the next version of your business and all of that, you build it with the challenges of today. So does that mean I go around going like, oh, I wish I have a challenge? No, life will throw enough at you, but every time it comes you want to hold it and lift it like a weight, like navigate it and get through it and hold your own and not have a tantrum. You can have a tantrum, but then stop right, you know. But do all of that so you can build the mental toughness, because this is the deal.

Speaker 1:

If you're building a business and on your way to a million, you're facing challenges. I promise you that those are baby challenges compared to what you're going to face on your way to 10 million, which are baby challenges compared to what you're going to face if you're on your way to multiple eight figures or nine figures. Do you see what I'm saying? And so the challenges of today are practiced so you can win the challenges of tomorrow, right, and so you can have that mental toughness and all that. So when you give up, you quit on the gym. There's no muscle to be had, and if you can't handle the pressure for level one, then you're not going to level two, right. And so I just want you to think about it. And I'm not saying that challenges are pleasant, that's not what I'm trying to say but we're all going to go through them, and so while you're in them, just go like okay, this is making me stronger. If I can go through this, I'm going to have the mental toughness is going to take for the next phase.

Speaker 1:

Because this is the deal being an entrepreneur is all about solving problems. It's all about problem solving. It is all about problem solving. It is all about problem solving. You solve problems for the clients. You solve problems with your systems. You solve problems with your team. You're a problem solver. A CEO is a problem solver. A founder is a problem solver. Okay, so you engage with the process of solving problems.

Speaker 1:

The third reason is that you give up on an opportunity for personal development. Right, because every problem, like some of it, may be something we did that created the problem, or something we didn't do that created the problem, or it was just what it was, or whatever. But the thing is you have to think about it. There is somebody who is going through a challenge that's three times the size of mine, 10 times the size of mine, and the person is cool as a cucumber. And the first time I noticed this, this was many years ago. I had 10 people on my team Actually a little less than 10, but let's say 10. It's a nice even number and I felt like I can't take it anymore. My team is driving me nuts and all of these things. And this is the deal.

Speaker 1:

I got on TV one day and I was watching a Dallas Maverick game and the owner at the time our majority owner at the time was Mark Cuban, and so he was at the game, completely chill, enjoying the game, really into it, and all of that. And I remember sitting and thinking like this is odd. So here I am with 10 employees in one company. Here's this guy who has 150 companies. At the time he had 150 companies. He had 150 companies was worth 3 billion, okay, and I said he has more than 15 times the number of companies as I have employees and he's chill and I'm not.

Speaker 1:

So the problem is not my team. The problem is not that well, we can't find great people. The problem is Maybe I don't know how to hire the right people. I don't know how to build the right company culture. I have not learned to regulate my emotions, so every little thing doesn't trip me up, and it's not a them problem, it's a me problem. And so if I can grow and become better at hiring the right people, if I can grow and get better at even accepting that I am worthy of a high capacity, high value team, if I can grow my building company culture, if I can learn to delegate better, if I can onboard them better, then I'll have a better team and I'll be as chill as a cucumber at a basketball game, right?

Speaker 1:

And so it's not really the challenge and I really want to encourage you when challenges show up, don't be so quick to look on the outside, like, look inwards, and not from a blaming standpoint like, oh I suck, I'm the reason for this, but more from a standpoint of what is this challenge trying to tell me that I need to learn? What skill is this challenge pointing to that I need to learn, right, like I need to acquire. Because when we look at that, when we put ourselves in a place where problems and challenges make us better, right, and I will tell you, I'm not a pro pro at building a team, but my goodness, do I have an amazing team? Like not even an amazing team. I have multiple amazing teams like amazing human beings that I get to work with and they blow my mind all the time. They come up with things I never could have come up with. They amplify the works of each other and just make our companies amazing. But it came from a challenge, a problem, a team driving me nuts right, so you give up on an opportunity for personal development because this challenge that you quit on could have taught you lessons that have made your business so much better.

Speaker 1:

Number four is don't quit because it doesn't even help, right, like when we quit because of challenges, like I want to relieve the pressure, right. And so I've seen people like, oh my private practice, oh my goodness, and they shut it down. But the thing is okay. But you still got a revenue problem. You still need to create revenue, you still need to create income, right. And you're like, oh my goodness, like I can't. You know, I can't stand my team and you decide I'm not going to train them, maybe I'm not even going to hire any more team members and all that. Okay, cool, but you still need the help, you still need to figure it out. You see what I'm saying. So it's not that it helps, it feels like it helps in the immediate term, but when you think about it, you still got a problem to solve, you still got to do stuff, and so if you do, then you might as well just do, okay, okay.

Speaker 1:

Number five is related to number four, and the fifth reason not to quit is because every path is filled with challenges, filled with problems, every single path. And so if you quit on one path, okay, well, I don't want to. I don't want to build this, you know, practice or whatever. I'm just going to go work a job and let someone deal with the headache. Well, you're going to have to deal with the headache of being an employee, because there's a headache there too, right? And you're like, oh man, you know, I don't want to think about building, you know, this team and all this stuff. I'm going to do the work myself. Well, there's also challenges with doing the work yourself, right? Because then there's burnout, there's all these other things.

Speaker 1:

Whichever path you choose, the grass always looks so much greener on the other side. But it's green on the other side because somebody is fertilizing it, somebody is watering it, someone is trimming it, someone is getting it manicured and doing all those things. It doesn't magically become green. So if you go on to the other side because it looks greener on the other side, guess what is waiting for you Work and challenges and problems and all of that. Think about it. Life is like a garden. Okay, you can have oranges, you can have apples, you can have rose bushes, you can have all of these things, but guess what? You're always going to have to work on Weeds. They will always be there. You will always have to work and get rid of them. You don't get to quit from that, right, life is like that, okay. So every path is filled with challenges. It doesn't matter. So what was the point of quitting? You're quitting to go somewhere else where there's challenges.

Speaker 1:

Now remember, I'm not talking about strategic quitting. I'm talking about quitting because you just want to relieve the pressure because of the problems, the challenges, the pain, the frustrations, the delays, all of that stuff. Okay, so that's number five. Number six Now, number six is is so scary, and this is the reason why I rarely consider quitting. I very rarely consider quitting, and that is that you abort the path to greatness. You abort the path. You're just like done.

Speaker 1:

I told you about Dr Swadham and the beautiful practice she has and the things that has become obvious that she can overcome. She'd have lost out on all of that if she quit, and that's why I was praying. I literally went, I had times of prayer for her. I said, lord, please do not let her quit. Don't let her quit because there's so much goodness on the other side of this. Okay, so let me give an example with myself.

Speaker 1:

When I started off, my first business was my private practice, and when I started off, it was not this version of me at all. This version of me, I mean, is nothing like the version of me that started a private practice. And that version of me you've heard me say this many times was a super shy, socially awkward, introverted, introvert. And that version of me would not market. That version of me would not sell. Thought selling was unprofessional.

Speaker 1:

I thought you know I wouldn't need to market because you know I was a good clinician, I had great bedside manner, my patients loved me, and that version of me would break out in hives when I saw a profit and loss statement this is the way accounting worked in my business. My husband would say, okay, we have the meeting with the. My husband's an accountant by training actually. So he's like we have the meeting with the accountant and all of that stuff. I was like you know what? I see the patients and I have babies. You guys can take care of the accounting, I don't care. Right, like that. That was it.

Speaker 1:

Like if, if I was involved at all, I just attended the meeting but I I didn't do anything, I didn't say anything, I didn't attempt to understand anything. As far as I was concerned, they were speaking Greek and I had no interest in learning how to speak Greek. Okay, and that was that version of me, and it was hard. Like how are you going to get patients if you won't market? How are you going to get patients if you won't sell? How are you going to understand this true financial state of your business if you're not going to look at the numbers? And so it came with so many challenges.

Speaker 1:

But I could have run away and, to be honest with you, when I first started my practice, I realized I had to market and sell because I didn't know, I thought I had the shingle and they would my lease and all that I would have escaped. But you know, I had a lease, had all these utility things, I had signed up for working with insurance companies, I had an EHR. I was just like, fine, you know. But I quite quit because I was just like, okay, we just got to see what happens. But I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful that you know, first of all, my husband's like until you get all the patients you want, right. And so started the process of putting myself out there, talking to referral sources, doing all these things, and, my goodness, I developed mental toughness. You know. I got the personal development I needed. I started learning to market, I started learning to sell, I started learning to build a referral base. I started learning to understand you know numbers Like I wouldn't even hire anybody In my private practice I had an alter ego.

Speaker 1:

Her name was Ella. I'm like thank you for calling Ivy League Pediatrics this is Ella, literally, because I could not imagine hiring anybody. I was like, how am I going to pay these people? I could not even imagine paying an MA right, and now I spend quite an impressive amount of money on payroll right. So all this stuff the practice that was profitable I would never have had it. I would have just said, oh, it didn't work for me, how did I know it didn't work for me, I quit, how would I know? And so my practice got profitable. I would have missed out on that.

Speaker 1:

My practice got to the place where I had a team that gave me some time freedom, so I was able to. For instance, I hired another doc who worked a day a week, and so I had a long weekend every weekend. I started leading a team so I could buy some of my time back. And then I got it to the next level, where my team is actually running the practice and I haven't set foot in the building in the last three years right, so they're running. So I built that level of a team and it freed me up so I can do all these things that I do with EntreeMD because I could turn around and say, okay, things are changing for physicians. I do with EntreeMD because I could turn around and say, okay, things are changing for physicians, let's see how we can support, let me see how I can retool myself and then how I can help other doctors retool themselves.

Speaker 1:

So, who knows, the books may not have been written. The EntreeMD podcast that has almost 500 episodes would not have existed. The Thousands of Lives Touch, the EntreeMD Business School, wouldn't have existed. Our company being on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies for two years in a row would not have happened. Me homeschooling my kids, my four kids that would not have happened.

Speaker 1:

And I just want to brag my daughter, who's 16, she just graduated from high school, right, because she's homeschooled, so she just liked to work, she worked through the summer, and all that because she had her little cadence going on, so she was able to be on a speed track of sorts and she just graduated and it's so cool. But anyway, I totally digress with that. But none of these things would have happened if I quit on my practice because it was so tough and, believe me, in the beginning I thought I was dealing with the biggest problem there must have been on planet earth. But it's not true. The problems I had then they don't even register as problems for my team. Talk less of a problem for me.

Speaker 1:

You don't quit because you abort the path to greatness and I'm still going. I'm 45. I have so much life left in me. I have so many things to do. I have so many lives to impact. We have 100,000 physicians that we're trying to reach and support. So thank you so much for listening to this podcast and please share it with the doctors in your world. We are on a mission, but I would have aborted all of that, all the doctors' lives we have had almost 400 doctors go through the EntreMD Business School and all the service we have done for them over the years. Over the last four and a half years, like none of that would have happened if I quit.

Speaker 1:

And now your journey is not my journey, but your journey is phenomenal, though right. Your journey is as unique as your fingerprint and it's beautiful and it's amazing and, oh my goodness, like I would love to see it. That's why it hurts my heart. When doctors quit, I'm like, oh my goodness, I was waiting to see that. I will never know, right, but lean into it, because if you can take one challenge after the other, after the other after the other, you'll win and you'll be on the path to greatness. And we don't know what it will be, but I promise you it's good. It's good, okay. So that's number six and then number seven. I think this is a friendly reminder.

Speaker 1:

The seventh reason not to quit is because, like, yes, you may have challenges. Yes, you may be going through problems. Yes, it may be really hard. Yes, sometimes you cry. Yes, you know nobody understands you. And please, if nobody understands you, I want you to come into the on-trending world. We will understand you. We get it. Okay, okay Now, but nothing is wrong. This is the seventh reason not to quit, because, even though you're experiencing all that, nothing is wrong. This is the seventh reason not to quit because, even though you're experiencing all that, nothing is wrong.

Speaker 1:

Success takes longer than you think. And success, the path to it is hard, but it is so rewarding if you don't quit, it is so good. So the journey takes a little longer than people think, because Instagram makes us think that you decide to start a business today, you do a few things and then you go sip margaritas on the beach and live happily ever after and there's nothing that could be further from the truth. You know that. You're a physician. You know, you know, right now am I saying it's going to be as hard as medical school? No, I don't know if there's anything harder than medical school and residency Okay, but no, it's not that kind of hard. But you understand what it takes to succeed. You understand delayed gratification. You understand it took you a decade at least to become a physician. You understand this. Right, it takes a minute. It takes a minute and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

Like I see people you know quit for some people is when they start year one, year two, year three they quit. I'm like you haven't given it enough time, you haven't given enough time to put in the reps to do the work. And some other people it's not that they quit like they've been in business for years, maybe a decade to get, but they've quit on the path of improvement. They've quit chasing the vision. They've quit chasing the dream because maybe they tried to build a team and they did it for a year, did it for two years and it didn't work. It takes a little longer, but when you quit, then what You're not going to quit and then it will work. That's not the way it works, right? Like, please don't quit. It takes a little longer, yes, it's hard, but the ROI, the return on investment, of not quitting, is ginormous.

Speaker 1:

If you talk to people who are very successful I love reading autobiographies because you'll find that they went through one hardship after the other. After the other you'll find out, you know what there's nothing wrong with me or there's nothing wrong with this. This is the way. But sometimes, when you're in it, there's so much pressure, so much pressure that you're just like make it stop. We quit because we're like make it stop and I want to invite you. Okay, it takes a minute Now. It takes a longer minute if, when you're in that season, you're not putting in the work, you. It takes a longer minute if, when you're in that season, you're not putting in the work, you're not doing the work, you're not staying focused, you're not working with proven strategies and you're just beating around the bush and all of that. Like, when you're in the season, use the season, do the work, put the work. You may not see the results right away, but you will right, I'm telling you it works.

Speaker 1:

We just had a coach. We had a coach who's a part of the Entremet Business School and she does such phenomenal work, you know, helping women physicians and all of that, and she always wanted to start a group program and I think she may have launched it a number of times. It didn't really work, or she tried to, she was getting ready to launch it and she's just like, yeah, she wasn't going to do it or whatever. And I watched her make a decision, a quality decision. This was during the On-Term De-Business School Vision Retreat. Some of her classmates held her accountable and she owned it and she said she was going to launch it. And she launched it and she had her first successful launch. She has a number of women in there number that she wanted. I think she exceeded the number she wanted and the doctors are already recording wins. They're already having their lives transformed and their lives maybe wouldn't have been transformed it would have taken so much longer if she didn't say yes, if she didn't choose not to quit, but she didn't quit and they're going to have such a magical experience because she didn't quit.

Speaker 1:

So this is my challenge to you Do not quit. Don't quit. You have a business. It is beyond you. It's about the impact that you're going to have in the lives of the people you're called to serve. It's about the financial freedom that you're going to create for you and for your family. It's about the time freedom so you're finally free to live life on your terms. Yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, it's going to take a little longer, but, my goodness, don't quit. Look at the people who've gone ahead of you. Look at the challenges that they face and they survived it and they're here, and I'm challenging you to do the same. Listen to me.

Speaker 1:

If you're here and you're a physician entrepreneur, you have access to the EntreeMD podcast. You have access to the books we've written. You have access, if you want, to the EntreeMD business school. You have access to stuff on social media. The people who started businesses before you a decade before, two decades before, there was such a stigma with being a physician entrepreneur. They didn't have people to go to like you do. They didn't have Facebook groups to go into. There was nothing like the Entremdi Business School. There are very few podcasts if there were any that were specifically for physicians who wanted to get in entrepreneurship. No matter how hard you think it is, it is so much easier than it used to be back in the day, and so you make those people proud and you don't quit on your business. You make it work.

Speaker 1:

I'm here waiting to celebrate you, because on the other side of the delay and on the other side of the pressure is a business that gives you a vehicle to impact so many lives and to create financial freedom and to create time freedom, and it will absolutely rock your world. So I'm rooting for you. Don't quit. If you need our support, we're here. If the podcast is what you want, it's here, and I'm committed to bringing you episodes that will rock your world. If the books are what you want to read, go to Amazon. We have books for you. There's no fluff. They're really designed to take your life and your business forward. And if you're like I really want to do it, like I mean, I want to put myself in a community where I'll be supported, where I'll get mentorship on a daily, weekly basis and all of that, come join us in the EntreMD Business School. You have so much support. Any way you want it, so you go in and I'm waiting to celebrate.