The One Belief Keeping Entrepreneurs From Real Success

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, I talk about why most entrepreneurs already have their why but lose progress by interfering with it. I walk through the beliefs and habits that kept me grounded as a kid in Akron, the painful moment I lost everything including my mom’s house, and how that experience reshaped the meaning I gave to my past. I break down the five daily practices that fuel passion, purpose, and profitability, from applying your why to managing fear with a simple stop, breathe, and reset approach. This conversation is about using consistency, intention, and self-honesty to shorten the distance between who you are and who you want to become.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	One of the most common questions entrepreneurs ask me is how did you find your why?
0:06.1	Can you help me find my purpose?
0:08.5	I have the passion.
0:10.0	I don't have the profitability, but how do I find my why?
0:14.6	And my answer is always the same.
0:16.6	You already have it.
0:17.9	What you really should be concerned with is what you're doing to interfere with it.
0:22.8	See, the key to success for passion, purpose, and profitability is how you apply your why.
0:29.1	And it takes wisdom and faith to understand that why is always with us.
0:34.6	Most people, especially entrepreneurs, will tell you,
0:37.7	I will be happy when,
0:40.2	especially in their economic success.
0:42.9	In my journey, I grew up in Akron, Ohio,
0:45.8	not too far from here, single mom, six kids.
0:49.5	She packed our dinner in a paper bag
0:51.3	as she worked two jobs, one's the second grade teacher, and then
0:54.8	put us in a car with that paper bag dinner and filled up turnstiles at convenience stores just so we
1:02.2	could eat. But every day, my mom lived to apply her why. She lived for the sake of other people, especially her children.
1:14.5	Never once did I hear my mom, oh, I'll be happy when I'm rich. I grew up, all I wanted to do was
1:20.9	be rich for the sake of taking care of my mom, buying her a house, a car, giving financial
1:25.7	security, because the only time I wasn't happy was when I would catch my mom crying because we couldn't
1:30.5	afford to live, to fix something, to go to summer camp, worried about college, law school.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.