This entrepreneurship thing is not for the faint of heart. I’m a perfectionist. But not in the sense that I do things perfectly. Rather, that I do them IMPERFECTLY and often, have no grace for myself to make mistakes. It started when I was learning how to write. My mom would show me how to put the “hook” on the right side of a lowercase “a.” I remember putting it on the left side, and when she pointed it out to me, I lost it. Literally, tears, crying, “I can’t do it! I’ll never do it!” This memory is burned into my memory and the same refusal to accept my imperfection plagues me today. The problem is, this lovely little quality FLIES IN THE FACE of being a business owner. Perfect isn’t an option. Mistakes are guaranteed. The question is not IF, but WHEN. So much of our journey as an entrepreneur is making mistakes, failing, and pressing onward. Not allowing the inward voice of failure to win the day. Not giving into the lie that we are a fraud and can’t do what we know we can do. What we know we were born and specifically created to do. It would make the devil’s job so much easier if we believed that lie that creeps in that says “you don’t actually know what you’re doing” – “you’re a fraud” – “you shouldn’t be doing this.” Even in the face of wild success, these little lies crop up under the floorboards where we stand and wrap themselves around our ankles, threatening to pull us down.
And sometimes we stumble. Catch ourselves and look around to see if anyone noticed. Should we keep going? Keep walking one foot in front of the other, doing what we know how to do and doing our best.
The answer is unwaveringly and unquestioningly YES.
I’ll keep showing up. Keep learning from writing the hook on the wrong side of the lowercase a. I refuse to let this handicap kill the beauty I’m capable of creating. I hope you won’t either.
The world needs what we were made to create. And we need each other for a reminder sometimes when it gets tough.
Here’s yours.
Carry on, soldier.