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One of the questions I’m always asked these days is how I was brave enough to follow my dreams…I receive multiple messages everyday from women just like me looking to start a new business and go it alone. Even today I was speaking to a friend of mine who would love to set up her own business but just doesn’t feel she has the confidence to go for it. This feeling is definitely something I can relate to but I’m sure it’s not something we should be afraid of. I have said it before but i’ll say it again. We are all so afraid of failing, of not achieving what we set out to do.
But what does that matter? When we fail is when we learn, and when we grow.
Failure is an important part of life. Sometimes failing brings us closer to where we should be in the end. It is something I try to instil in my girls. It’s ok to fail. Just make sure to learn from it. Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off and go again. Harder than it sounds I know, but it’s an important part of life.
What I find striking about the messages I receive is that each and every woman I speak to is interested to know how I was so ‘brave’ to go it alone.
I’m not sure I am brave? Maybe I’m more stupid than brave but hey here I am!
I think I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I reckon I picked that up from my dad. My dad is one of the best business people I know. He could sell ‘sand to the arabs’, as they say! I’m not just saying this because he is my dad! Honestly, he once showed up to a trade fair to find out his stock never showed up. He spent the next 2 days selling out of all his stock of invisible products! I suppose you could say he has a lack of fear (or else he just hides it really well!). Either way, he was able to overcome an ‘impossible’ feat with pure belief and determination. It’s something I have always looked up to and aspired to be able to do.
Owning your own business to me is like problem solving.
Every day there is a series of challenges to overcome, and as a small business it is usually only you who can jump that hurdle. So you do. Hurdle after hurdle until you reach your goal.
Everyone thinks that owning your own business is super glamorous, and don’t get me wrong there is some glamour involved, but for the most part it’s a lot of hard work! Everyone see’s our amazing instagram stories where we are at fab events and mixing with super amazing and influential people but what you don’t see is what it took to get there…I love telling the story of my ‘meet the designer’ event in Bloss (a pop up Irish Design Store in Dundrum Town Centre)…The event looked amazing. There was champagne, gorgeous Jane Darcy cupcakes etc…it all looked super fab…but what you didn’t see was me unloading tables and cake stands and bottles etc into a trolly all by myself and hustling my way through Dundrum Shopping Centre on a busy Saturday in December only to realise I had forgotten half the set up in the car! After a super stressful and sweaty journey I made it and it all ended up perfect but it definitely didn’t just happen…You really have to have a passion and belief in what you do. I think that’s the most important part.
Choose to do something that makes your heart tick, that makes you excited and you will do it well.
As Anna O’Rourke so rightly put it ‘Everyone, I’ve discovered, has worries and doubts. Imposter syndrome is very real and many people genuinely fear that they’re not good enough.’ I’m with you on that one Anna! I definitely have moments when I feel like giving up, like I can’t do it. But the important thing is that I shake that feeling off and decide to place my trust in myself and what I believe. So basically, I’m not super brave. I’m just the same as everyone else. I have fears and moments of doubt. I simply choose to trust and believe in myself, and you can too.
If I can give you one bit of advise, it would be to follow your dreams. Do what you have always wanted to do.
Sheryl Sandberg puts it so beautifully; ‘So please ask yourself; what would you do if you weren’t afraid? And then go do it’.