Happy You Asked!!!!
When you’re in high school the burning question is, “Have you thought about what you’d like to do for a career?”. When you graduate from high school the question people ask is, “What university are you attending in the fall?”. When you start your career and the years creep along the question becomes, “Are you seriously dating anyone?”. Then when you get married the question quickly becomes, “Are you thinking of having children soon?”. Funny thing is as you get older the questions keep on coming! You just start feeling old because the questions revolve around retirement and where you plan to live when you retire!
Since launching my business, Soft Landings, I am frequently asked if I’ve gotten a client yet!!!? While I know the questions are well intended, every time I’m asked it a part of me inside cringes and self doubt and fear of failure creep in. Having to answer, “no”, as the weeks after launching Soft Landings roll by, only reinforces those feelings. Then when your son asks you what you plan on doing if you never get a paying client, you yourself wonder what if?!! Such feelings are not only unhelpful and inaccurate but can be very immobilizing. I knew I needed to make a mental shift; framing my own successes and measures rather than being tossed about by the questions and feelings of self doubt and failure. And so I did and here’s how I see my success. It’s not easy taking an idea and turning it into a business. Not only do you have to have the idea but you have to know how to execute it and have a lot of grit to see it through. It’s taken countless hours of marketing research, collaboration, and mentoring to arrive where I am today. While I love my web site, each day it pushes me to learn a new lingo: SEO, back links, meta description….. Social media is not my genius but so necessary and I’m getting there; LinkedIn has opened a whole new world of connections with people in my arena starting with a few connections to growing by the dozens (BTW it is NOT a dating site!!).
So then what is success and how exactly can it be measured? It’s totally natural to get caught up in the final product; the results and forget the worth of anything lies in the process. Win or lose, it’s the fact that I’ve tried, with all I could offer, to do the best at something I felt was of value. That alone is rewarding.
Will I get a client and is that important to me?; Hell Yes!! It just takes time, patience, building connections and a whole lot of hard work and perseverance.
Theodore Roosevelt summed it up like this:
“Far and away the
best prize that life
offers is the chance to
work hard at work
worth doing”.
That’s the prize that propels me forward – work worth doing.
So next time you see me don’t be afraid to ask me if I’ve gotten a client yet. I’m already a success.
As the great one, Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of shots you don’t take”.
Let this year be the one you take more shots at.
Happy New Year everyone!!
2 Comments
Leave your reply.