Having skilled guidance and support is a key to success in business, but if the entrepreneur is also in recovery it is infinitely more important. I know this to the core of being: because word of mouth brought me so many clients in recovery, that is now a particular area of expertise. I offer coaching tailored to business owners in recovery from substance and/or behavioral addictions and from trauma and crisis like no one else can. My main message here is that if you are an entrepreneur in recovery, whatever you do, do not go it alone! Find the best guidance and support you can.
The named my book “12 Steps to Business Breakthrough” as a a tip of the hat to Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original 12-step program. My make-or-break life moment came when my trauma surfaced in the middle of my successful business life and, because I didn’t know then there were other solutions, I turned to substances and quickly found myself a heartbeat away from death. I, like millions before me, turned to what has worked for the greatest number of substance abusers to date: 12-step programs. My own liberation from addiction has been a combination of many pathways to recovery, but the 12-step community has been the most powerful. Ironically, the 12th step is service to others, and I offer the following chapters in the spirit of service so that you can have the well-deserved success for your efforts everyday in your business.
To me, the significance of AA is that — when nothing else in human history had ever worked — AA discovered that through meeting regularly and sharing their experience, strength and hope, substance abusers could stop. Today, many different paths of recovery are being explored, many of which I mention in my book. At the heart of every pathway is the sufferer receiving support from someone or something else. Statistics show that such support, as opposed to trying to stop abusing substances on your own, makes the difference between life or death more often than not.
When I returned to my business life, I zoomed in on the incredible power of turning to another human being for support. It was that simple act — years before the 12 Steps were written — that gave birth to AA and relief to millions of people who would have otherwise died. Now I see getting recovery-informed coaching as the all important missing piece in entrepreneurship. I am not saying that being a business owner is as risky, minute-by-minute, as being an active substance-user. In business you don’t face the same likelihood of fatal car crashes, overdoses and other sudden death scenarios. But being an entrepreneur is certainly more risky than being an employee. So, if you are also in recovery, flying solo in a business can be perilous indeed.
The more clients in recovery that my business attracted, the more I saw and perfected how my own experiences building businesses, both before and after my recovery, could help them sidestep pitfalls. I believe I have now developed a protocol for entrepreneurs in recovery to confidently build the success they and their families deserve.
Most business coaches are neither qualified or comfortable with clients in recovery from addiction or trauma. My team has the training and experience to offer these clients the coordinated service and attention they deserve.
We’ve known anecdotally that entrepreneurs are more likely to deal with addiction in their lives; however, recent formal research about addiction in entrepreneurs has confirmed an uncomfortable fact that entrepreneurs are more likely to suffer from addiction in their lives and in their families. Addiction and entrepreneurialism have similarities that deserve to be discussed. In my blog and book, I contribute to the conversation by providing practical approaches to building a healthy work-life-recovery balance.
Aspects of entrepreneurship may activate neural reward circuits and disinhibit and reinforce the compulsive and addictive behaviors of entrepreneurs who may be predisposed and vulnerable to addiction (Murdoch et al. 2007; Spivack et al. 2014).
