THE BELIEF THAT BANKRUPTED KODAK (AND MIGHT BE KILLING YOUR BUSINESS)

In 1975, Kodak invented the first digital camera. It wasn’t until around 1990 that digital cameras were really put out to the public and until the late 1990s that they really became a “thing.” And as this story is as old as time, you likely know Kodak didn’t initially release the digital camera… they actually missed the wave.

Think about that. The company that had defined photography for a century held the keys to the future of the industry. But instead of embracing it, leadership dismissed it. They believed people would always want film and that digital would cannibalize their core business.

That single belief cost them their empire. Kodak went from an icon to bankruptcy court while competitors ran with the very technology they had pioneered.

The irony? It wasn’t the competition that killed Kodak. It was their own thinking.

Limiting beliefs don’t just live in corporate boardrooms. They live in us. And while you and I don’t have billions at stake, the pattern is the same: the ceiling on our business isn’t always financial or operational… it’s what’s between our ears.

THE ME PROBLEM

What are the things you’ve quietly told yourself you’re not good at? What do you avoid, not because you can’t do it, but because you’ve already decided the outcome?

• Introvert vs. extrovert. “I’m awkward in rooms of people.” So we skip the lunch, avoid the conference, and tell ourselves we’re being efficient by “staying heads down.” The pipeline dries up and we call it seasonality.
• Sales aversion. “I’m not a salesperson.” So we never pick up the phone, even when our product is solid. Revenue stalls and we chalk it up to market conditions.
• Numbers phobia. “I don’t understand finances.” So we don’t review our numbers until surprises hit us square in the face. The business bleeds quietly through margin slippage and we only notice when cash is tight.
• Leadership labels. “I’m not cut out to manage people.” So we keep doing everything ourselves. The team stagnates. Capacity caps out at the founder’s calendar.

These beliefs sound harmless because they feel true. They operate like invisible fences. You don’t even test the boundary because you assume it’s there. You stay in your safe zone, not realizing the gate was open the whole time.

Here’s the financial truth that stings a little: limiting beliefs don’t just shape mindset, they shape cash flow. They decide whether you price confidently or discount to be liked. Whether you hire the person who can scale a function or keep patching holes yourself. Whether you invest in systems or keep duct taping as costs creep up.

SIGNS OF LIMITING BELIEFS

There are four common indicators you’re stuck:

1. Black‑and‑white thinking: If it isn’t perfect, it’s a failure, which results in you not shipping… not asking… not trying.
2. Personalizing: You blame yourself for random negative events and read every no as a verdict.
3. Catastrophizing: You assume the worst on scant evidence and plan for disaster and never for upside.
4. Universalizing: One bad experience becomes a rule… that one bad hire becomes “good people are impossible to find.”

Catch any of those in your inner monologue? You’re likely dealing with belief, not reality.

Limiting beliefs take root for three reasons:

1. Fear of pain: Our brains are threat detectors. Rejection, embarrassment, and the unknown register as danger. Fear shrinks our options and calls it wisdom.
2. Echoes of the past: A single failure can become a storyline. One blown pitch, one tense review with a boss, one bad debt decision… and you quietly write a rule to never do that again. The rule calcifies and stops you from taking further action.
3. Borrowed scripts: Parents, teachers, past bosses hand us sentences we never question: “Stay in your lane.” “Don’t aim too high.” “You’re the numbers guy, not the sales guy.” We mistake description for destiny.

These beliefs often sounds good… “I’m being realistic.” Others agree… “He/She is wise.”

The problem is, what often looks like good judgment from the outside is you internal turmoil justifying your bad decisions (and using their feedback to reinforce it).

REAL MONEY COST

The problem is, as a business owner, these things cost your REAL money.

• Cost of delay. If you’re at $500k ARR growing 2% per month and a belief keeps you from launching a proven offer for six months, you didn’t just “wait.” You gave up compounding. Delay should be a line item and the P&L.
• Turnover tax. “I’m not good at managing people” leads to avoidant leadership. High performers leave. Replacing a $80k role commonly runs 20–30% of salary in direct and indirect costs (recruiting, ramp time, lost productivity). Two departures a year is a $32k–$48k silent tax… and that’s conservative.
• Margin drift. “I hate talking price” shows up as habitual discounting. On $3m revenue at a 35% gross margin, routinely taking 5% off list to avoid discomfort can compress gross profit by ~$150k+ per year. That’s a CFO’s raise, a new AE, and upgraded systems… gone.
• Under‑investment. “Debt is dangerous” can be true or it can be an excuse. If a measured $250k line at 10% fuels a capacity upgrade that adds $60k/mo in Gross Profit within two quarters, the belief not to borrow is effectively costing you ~$500k/year in stable contribution. It’s easy to miss that risk has two sides.

None of these examples are outlandish. They’re versions of real problems I’ve seen as a fractional CFO.

The cost grows when your team adopts your mindset… when the mind virus spreads to others and they start adopting your limiting beliefs as a part of company DNA.

BREAKING THE SPELL

So how do we break through our limiting beliefs and stop sabotaging our business results? Exposure.

The therapy world calls it exposure therapy: repeated, graduated contact with the thing you fear until your body learns the truth… this won’t kill me. Start with one call, one price ask, one financial review, one delegate-and-trust. Small reps rewire belief.

A few years back, I came across an exercise from Michael Hyatt where he talks about how to address those limiting beliefs.

In his exercise, you want to get out a piece of paper and put two columns:

• Left: Limiting belief
• Right: Liberating truth

Then follow this six-step process:

1. Recognize: Write the belief verbatim. Look for “I can’t…,” “I’m not…,” “I always…,” “We never….” Don’t polish it. Be honest.
2. Record: Seeing it on paper turns fog into form. You can wrestle what you can see.
3. Review: Ask: Is this belief helping us reach our goal? If not, what data contradicts it? What would we do differently if we didn’t believe this?
4. Reject & Reframe: What perspective haven’t we considered? Name the partial truth (there’s usually a sliver) and the bigger truth we’ve ignored.
5. Revise: Write the corresponding liberating truth on the right side. Not a cheesy affirmation but an alternative interpretation equally supported by facts.
6. Reorient: Pick the smallest measurable action that would be true if the new belief were your operating system. Do it within 24–48 hours. Log the outcome.

Here are some examples of what that can look like:

WRAPPING UP

It's easy to look at a topic like this and say, "That's not a finance topic. Why are you talking about this, Kurtis?"

But the more business owners I've worked with, the more I've realized that the biggest hurdles in front of businesses aren't all the financial things, but the owner's mental blocks to doing the right financial things.

Belief ultimately drives behavior. if you think about the chain, you get:

Belief creates a feeling, which impacts your choice, which determines your action, which determines you result. Your result becomes more evidence to support that stronger belief.

If we continue on the same path we’ve always been on, we’ll continue that loop of reinforcing that limiting belief.

But if instead, we interrupt the action and create new results and evidence, we can slowly break that belief down. This is how we approach finance with our clients… We implement financial rhythms and help educate business owners on the why.

That education and those rhythms slowly change results, which breaks down the belief that they’re weak in finance.

Over time… we see huge results. Results that mean more profit and cash in their pockets.

And it all started with the intentional action to break that limiting belief.

Kodak didn’t die of competition; it died of conviction. A good‑sounding, wrong‑sized belief.

What belief is quietly capping your business? That you’re bad at sales? That you’re not a leader? That your customers won’t pay more? That you’ll be found out if you ask more questions about the numbers?

Write that belief down. Rewrite it as the liberating truth. Then ask: What’s one thing you can do in the next 48 hours to break the negative loop?

You don’t have to dismantle a lifetime of wiring tonight. You only have to pick up the phone once. Ask for the price you’re worth once. Review the numbers for an hour once. Delegate one meaningful outcome once.

Evidence will do the heavier lifting from there.

Because the biggest move in your P&L might not be a new offer, a new hire, or a new system. It might be a new story. A truer one.

Rewrite it. Test it. Live it. Your business is waiting for you to believe it.

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