I must say that one of the things that seems to be a recurring theme for me is the need for me to break through my own inertia on a daily, almost hour by hour basis. Waiting for motivation never seems to be the answer – it is much much easier to find reasons NOT to do than to do, many days. There is nothing like financial loss to make you feel less than confident, less than creative, less than…well, yes, just LESS, I guess. And yet waiting for that to change, I know I could wait forever. Action is the only thing that keeps allowing me to break through the veil of my own processing and at the same time facilitates it.
They say that only 3% of new businesses will make it through the first 3 years. Despite those less-than-encouraging statistics, somehow I felt that I could rise above those odds. 3% do, after all! I thought we had found a vehicle to carry us over the start-up threshold when we formed a strategic partnership with a 10-year old, supposedly stable company
to provide them with a coaching and training institute. It wasn’t but 6 months into the arrangement that everything blew up in smoke- my working capital was exhausted, the economic conditions were not prime for immediate new revenue creation, and I was out of ideas. My sense of responsibility and integrity led me to the next 2 years of working to lick my wounds and recover financially, sinking all my personal resources into paying back creditors and trying to do right.
It wasn’t until I stopped, stepped back, and acknowledged what my situation really was, rather than what I was trying to make it (aka trying to make it “better”), that I was able to break through and take concrete action on a new path, a path that is contributing to my ability to finally rebound from my loss. I would love to hear from others on what helped them move forward after a set back – I outline more concrete action steps in my upcoming book, but first I want to hear from you too!
