If there were a crown and sash given for excessive failures VS successes, I would be strutting down that bad boy of a stage waving like a boss to millions of fans with my GREATEST FAILURE crown and sash.
Failure and I go way back, and we know each other well. I haven’t just made the little mistakes here and there but, some massive, humiliating, ugly failures. Outright tripping, flying through the air and landing in a wet, muddy, pool of failure, face down. This girl knows how to fail. From diets, to exercise, to business ventures and even love, I’ve failed at all of it…many times over.
And guess what, I’m ok.
I’m better than ok; I’m a strong, mighty, confident women with grit and tenacity. Failure can be glorious, but never at the moment. It sucks. It hurts, and almost every time I feel like I won’t ever be able to succeed ever again. I’m Sucky McSuckerson, and I will never leave the house again. But I do. I get up, dust off, throw my hair in a ponytail and get after it. I love magnificent stories of overcoming the impossible, triumphs when there most certainly could not be one, the comeback girl that everyone wrote off, the ones that did it when everyone said they couldn’t…I love that girl. She’s has embraced failure, looked it straight in the eyes and said, “oh, it’s going down.” She failed and got back up. Every. Single. Time.
In the late 1980’s my entrepreneurial spirit started to rise in me for the 1st time. I was a human realizing they had super powers inside, I knew it was always there, but I just never knew how to use it. I started a BUSINESS. I was going to be a MILLIONAIRE! My idea was genius. Imagine it, very heavy cardstock, die cut into little shapes, ya know, like a pig face, a flower or a hamburger…no, seriously, it was a thing. I would cut these precious little shapes, then beautifully paint them with details that made my little piggy faces look jolly and oh so precious. Then, naturally, I would put an earring hook at the top and Voila!, a gorgeous and fashionable jewelry piece. I know what you’re thinking, “WOW, brilliant business AND fashion-forward decision making.” Right?! It will most certainly pain you to learn that this business venture did not succeed. However, I can hook you up with a pair of pig earrings if you so desire.
Discovering my entrepreneurial spirit, or “superpowers” if you will, was like learning I could shoot fireballs from my eyes and then accidentally realizing I just blew up an apartment building. I had GRIT, tinacity, drive, work ethic and I was REALLY bad at running a business, making a product, managing money and everything else that came with it. But I liked it…a lot, because let’s be real, superpowers rock…when you know how to use them.
In order to be a super hero entrepreneur you must be a master of failure. I don’t mean just have a “casual relationship” with failure, but a full-blown, deep affair with failure that, in the end, disappoints and hurts to a level that you never want to feel that feeling again. When you give your business, or anything in your life, your heart, soul and guts and it doesn’t work out, it’s devastating. But like love, you’re not supposed to give up on it; you’re supposed to get back out there and do it again and again until you get it right. Take what you learned and do it better. Figure out what to do different, what to fine tune, what to “add in” or take out to be better. You learn what skills need to be fine-tuned, and in the end, you just get better and better and better. Kinda cool, huh?
People frozen in fear, unable to move because of what might go wrong, or what people might think of them will NEVER experience the awe-inspiring gifts God has for them along the road. I can honestly tell you that the best part was never the finish line, it was always the story of what happened along the way. The friends, the experiences, the lessons, the growth and if you’re lucky, a trail of changed loves in your wake.
My failures have been big and small and I’m grateful for every one of them. They made me better, stronger, and a lot less scared to jump into the great big pool of the POSSIBLE…naked!
Side note – If you are lucky, you get a mentor through these failures. Ones that mentor you spiritually and emotionally through journeys and seasons. Fervently look for these mentors in your life, pray for God to put them in your path. Reach out to them, make connections.
Mentors can quite literally change your life, rock your world and be one of the greatest gifts you will ever receive. The entrepreneur I am today is the creation of four, life-changing mentors, Judy, Kathy, Wendy, and Kali. Judy was the first woman I met in business that was not only speaking out what was possible for women in business but living it. She blew my mind and catapulted my thinking when she spoke. Judy taught me how to write down, speak out and go after what I wanted, in business and in my personal life (my dating life was a little messy back then). In my eyes, she has always been the ultimate, bad ass, big thinking, get it done woman.
My Kathy, my Wendy and my Kali came in the last 10 years. Yes “my”. These women are a part of my soul, and I can not imagine how my life would have differed without them. They guided me in business, financially, spiritually and in love. But more than anything, they loved me…continually and unconditionally. Today they are some of my closest friends. They made me a better woman, and I am forever grateful.
Here’s to the strong but still scared…here’s to jumping in…NAKED!
+ show Comments
- Hide Comments
add a comment