Imagine you built your own home. You build it nice and with enough bedrooms for your family. Your family likes the house, your friends like the house, everyone is happy with it. It's cozy and provides everything you need.
But they don't get it. You're driven and this 3 bedroom simply will not do. You want a bigger family and you want to host even larger parties at your house. You need more family and more friends. SO, every time you get a little extra money, you build more onto the house. FOrEveR. Like Lady Winchester.
And here's what happens: Eventually the house gets so big it starts to need more and more people just to maintain it. In addition to building the house, you have to start building infrastructure and hiring engineers to make sure the thing doesn't collapse on itself. And some rooms DO collapse, taking out family members who lived there but, hey, no risk, no reward, right? Gotta keep growing.
So at a certain point, the house itself and it's belongings and physical presence has become so huge and so valuable and all-consuming, something interesting starts to happen: You really don't even think about or care about the family living there. They are an afterthought. You start keeping the air and heat lower and lower to save money to build the house. You start buying cheaper and cheaper food to fill the pantry. You stop paying for amenities to make your family's life more enjoyable and comfortable. And, in turn, they become ill and emaciated and bored and bitter and angry.
But, to be honest, you can always find a new family with all this power and money. Who wouldn't want to live in this enormous, beautiful, successful home? Your family doesn't fucking GET IT. Things are not so bad because LOOK AT THE HOUSE YOU GET TO LIVE IN. WHAT AN HONOR!
So why the fuck are they so ungrateful? And why are some of your family members moving out? You can't have that so you start getting defensive about your home. You separate the family members and forbid them to talk about how cold it is in the winter and how much the food sucks and how bored and sad they all are.
And you hire people whose job it is to manipulate and gaslight your family to MAKE THEM SEE that this family is no worse than any other family and leaving will only leave them worse off.
And you hire people who understand the law and can find every little loophole to make certain you are not spending a single penny you don't have to spend because, now, in addition to your family, all your friends have started investing in the construction of your house and if your family leaves, your friends will lose their money and won't be your friends anymore. And you can NOT have that.
So you ramp up and up and up your self-preservation policies, budgets get tighter and tighter and, eventually, your friends are really the only ones who matter, aren't they? Your family has actually been nothing but a millstone around your neck. Sure, you need them to sweep the floors and wipe counters and take out the garbage BUT at this point, they should be fucking grateful they even have a roof over their heads. Your friends all get it. They have their own houses and run their families all the same way.
And you know what? You and your friends have enough money now to start changing the laws to make building your house even cheaper and easier. You become a “community leader” and raise money for charities (they don't know it's all a schtick) to show your family and friends how kind and generous you are.
And when you can't be any kinder or generous-er, you and your friends start to run for mayor or city council or congress because then YOU literally start to get to make the laws that will allow you to build your house as big as you want, keep it as cold as you want, feed as little as you want and no one can tell you anything.
And that's what building a business is all about.