Why the wrong question reveals everything about your chances of success
I want to address a question that comes up frequently, especially from people who are new entrepreneurs or new to investing in themselves through programs or coaching. It reveals a massive mindset issue that, when shifted, will help you succeed much faster.
This is a question that often comes up when a beginner entrepreneur is considering joining a program. It sounds something like this:
“How many students have signed up for your program – and what’s the success rate? Of the ones who aren’t successful, what are the top reasons they’re not successful, and what have you done to fix those reasons in the program?”
When I hear questions like this, it’s a red flag to me as a coach that there are some underlying mindset issues. I’ll unpack them in this post because I believe it will be incredibly helpful for you.
Important note: The mindset shifts we’re about to dig into are 100% required for success—whether you work with me, someone else, or go it alone.
What’s Really Being Asked
Let’s dig into the heart of the question about success rates and percentages.
What someone is asking with the success rate question is actually: “Will this work for ME? Will I be successful?”
They want to know if they’ll fall into the “successful percentage” if enough other people have succeeded.
The Fatal Flaw in This Thinking
Here’s the problem with that question: It contains a dangerous presupposition.
The question assumes that success comes from some external environment—that the program, content, or instructor is the sole ingredient that will determine their outcome.
Now, I’m assuming that anyone asking this question has already done their due diligence going into it. They’ve researched the program and instructor, they know it’s not a scam, and they trust the person they’re learning from. The instructor has already demonstrated their knowledge and results—that’s a given and not part of this equation.
The presupposition is flawed because it places the responsibility for success outside of yourself, when the reality is quite different.
Why “Success Rates” Are Not So Easy to Track
Let me explain why this question is problematic from a practical standpoint:
The Tracking Challenge
First, tracking student success is not easy if you have more than 10 people. Why? Because not everybody is reachable.
Here’s what I’ve discovered over 10+ years: The most successful students are busy doing the work. They’re out there working their business, and they’re quieter about it. If you regularly run testimonial contests or talk to them directly (depending on your type of client access), you will hear from a percentage of people, but most of the time, the ones getting the biggest results are head-down, implementing.
The Sad Reality
Here’s something every course creator needs to come to grips with: Most people who sign up for programs do absolutely nothing with it. This is the unfortunate reality.
We know this, so we deliberately filter people coming in and personally vet every single person who joins my programs. We don’t want tire kickers. Having a program full of people who aren’t doing anything isn’t a win for anyone! So we interview every single person to make sure they’re a fit, that they’ll contribute positively to the group, that we align on core values, and that I believe I can actually help them.
We turn people away every single week. If I sense red flags, I don’t let them join.
But even with this filtering process, you can’t completely avoid people who have great intentions but don’t follow through. When you’re working in the beginner space, it’s somewhat statistical—there are people who love the idea of being an entrepreneur but aren’t willing to do what it actually takes when they realize how hard it is.
The Definition Problem
The other issue is the question of how many people are successful.
Wait a minute: Who defines success and failure? What’s my definition versus your definition?
For some people, getting crystal clear on what they’re doing and having a plan—that’s success. For others, they’re looking for specific revenue amounts. There are too many variables to define success with one metric.
Different types of success:
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Revenue goals
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Personal development goals
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Health and spiritual goals
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Hitting quarterly milestones
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Building systems and processes
I measure success by setting quarterly goals and hitting those goals or making significant progress toward specific milestones. But success is deeply personal and situational.
The Real Reasons People Don’t Succeed
Based on years of coaching, here are the main patterns I see. Almost 99% of it comes down to mindset, emotions, relationships, and dynamics:
1. Spousal Sabotage
This is, unfortunately, one of the most destructive patterns I see. Oftentimes, one person is the visionary and business pioneer in the relationship. They have the vision for product development and moving forward, and they know they aren’t ever going to realize their full potential or destiny doing what they have been doing. But their spouse is skeptical, doesn’t share the vision, and isn’t on the same page.
Even when that person is getting results and making progress, the other spouse doesn’t believe in them, doesn’t support them, doesn’t help them, and doesn’t allow it to become a bonding experience. Instead, it drives a wedge between them.
I have never seen such destruction between spouses over business issues. The problem isn’t starting a business – it just reveals the character flaws, mindset issues, and unhealed pain that were already present — but business has a way of bringing it all to the surface.
This is why it’s critical to get on the same page with your spouse and share a vision for the future first. Once you have that shared vision, then you can agree on the course of action to get there.
2. Partnership Problems
Similar dynamics happen with business partners—whether family members or others. Issues that arise include sabotage, conflict, misalignment of values, unequal contribution after people agreed to specific roles, and role confusion.
Partnerships are statistically one of the trickier business models that tend to end in failure or dissolution because people change, priorities shift, and when that happens, the committed founders lose momentum. And once you lose momentum, it’s really hard to gain it back.
3. Analysis Paralysis
These are the overthinkers and over-analyzers who fail to execute quickly. They’re just not moving fast enough.
If you watched my recent Instagram story highlight called “From Scratch,” you’ll see where I went from idea to launching a brand within 30 days of thinking about it. Then, within the next 30 days of launching, we made $31,000 with a brand new audience, a new product, no cross-promotion, new ads, new everything—just starting completely from scratch.
When I say you need to move quickly, I’m not kidding around. Most people move too slow! Failure to launch is a real thing, and failure to execute quickly kills more businesses than almost anything else.
4. The Beginner Mindset Challenge
I love beginners, but they have the steepest climb. It’s like being at the bottom of Mount Everest—when you’re halfway up, you’re in the groove. You understand the pain, you get that it’s a grind, you understand you’re not going to get instant gratification or overnight success.
But beginners at the bottom aren’t even used to wearing those kinds of shoes. They’re not used to the blisters, the aching back, the discomfort. They don’t know what this feeling is or why it’s so hard.
The beginner mindset struggles include:
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Risk aversion – everything is about staying safe or not losing
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Money mindset blocks—not being okay with profit subconsciously
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Feeling not good enough or undeserving
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Not doing the hard personal work to overcome money mindset obstacles
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Not doing emotional healing or trauma work to feel worthy
These people get stuck because they can’t move past thinking, “I deserve this, my children deserve this, the future deserves this.” They don’t realize that success isn’t just about personal deservedness—it’s about impact in the world, being able to give, taking care of needs, and making the world better.
5. Not Following the System
This is a huge one. The most successful students I’ve coached over 10+ years—the ones who’ve gone to a million dollars plus—have told me the same thing:
“Leah, I just did exactly what you told me to do. I didn’t skip anything. I didn’t jump around or pick and choose. I didn’t wing it. I followed exactly what you said, put my blinders on, didn’t learn from 13 other coaches. I just did exactly what you said and it worked.”
I’ve heard this enough times that I can’t skip this. And when I’ve followed other mentors’ programs the same way, I also get excellent results.
There’s something powerful about focus and trust. When a mentor has designed a curriculum and put things in a certain order, there’s usually a very good reason.
The way I’ve designed my curriculum is methodical—each lesson and module builds on the previous one. I don’t recommend piecemealing or jumping around because my teaching method is extremely based on principles rather than fads.
Yes, I get into tactics and specifics, but principles work no matter what year you’re in or how algorithms change. This is how I’ve become successful across all my brands—coaching, e-commerce, physical products, music, Kickstarters. It’s all based on timeless principles.
Students from eight years ago still tell me, “Leah, your stuff is still timeless. The tactics changed, the platforms changed, but everything you taught me is transferable to all my other businesses.”
6. Weak Desire and Comfort with Mediocrity
The words don’t match the actions. These people are far too comfortable—they’re comfortably miserable where they are, but not miserable enough to make radical decisions and act on them day after day.
When it gets hard, they give up because the desire just isn’t strong enough. They don’t have vision for the future—not for themselves, not for their kids.
Roles and Responsibilities
If you’re a course creator or coach, you’ll want to take notes on this part. If you’re a student in a program, this is equally important to properly understand your own expectations, responsibilities, and results.
The Program and Coach’s Role
Every program should provide the framework of knowledge and tools needed to execute something specific and get a result.
When I build curriculum, I write down in my outline: “By the end of this lesson/module, students will be able to _____.” For example, they’ll be able to calculate the cost of goods sold, understand profit margins, or do a specific exercise so they can accomplish something.
My role as the coach is to provide:
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The recipe and ingredient list
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Step-by-step instructions
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The frameworks and tools
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Personalized coaching [depending on the program]
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Community
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The environment and platform
Some of those above deliverables completely depend on the specific offer. If you offer a DIY course, you’ll only be providing the curriculum, for example.
What Coaches & Programs Cannot Do
If the objective is to bake a cake, and the program is a cookbook, what a coach or program cannot do is make you buy the ingredients or stand in the kitchen and bake the cake. Only you can do that.
Here’s the other thing people don’t realize: The ingredients you bring to the table matter too. Your product, your audience, the market you’ve chosen, your niche, etc. These are all factors and variables that no instructor can control.
If the recipe calls for three eggs, cake flour, baking soda, butter, and sugar, but you bring cottage cheese, egg substitute, almond flour, and sugar substitute, then wonder why the cake didn’t turn out the same way—whose responsibility is that?
A good program will help you judge your ingredients—it’ll teach you the benchmarks for knowing if your “ingredients” are quality. But ultimately, you’re responsible for bringing good ingredients to the table.
The Student’s Responsibility
It is 100% the role and responsibility of a student to show up and do the things they’ve invested in and committed to.
I invest in myself constantly—you’d raise your eyebrows if you knew how much I’ve spent on my own education. I’ve experienced good programs, bad programs, and things where I didn’t get what was promised. I’m very experienced with expectations.
I solidly believe: If there are live calls, you rearrange your schedule to attend them. You show up, you prioritize. This is how you get your money’s worth. This is how you get your investment back—and then some.
The student’s role:
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Show up and participate
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Do the work consistently
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Attend live calls (if offered)
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Submit assignments
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Engage with the community (don’t be a lone island)
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Follow the system as designed
You get out of it what you put into it. We all know this, but few actually live by it.
The Real Source of Success
Here’s the main takeaway: Success does not come from an external source.
It’s not going to come from a program. No coach is going to make you successful. No program is going to make you successful. You will make you successful.
