In case you needed reminding that life can just get messy and messy is ok…
We really have got to let go of that ‘perfect picture’ we can get in our heads of what things should look like.
And that applies to being a ‘success’ in business too.
All growth is messy, not always picture perfect and pretty.
Like starting your own business.. let go of that picture of you all dressed up in the perfect label business suit, driving the perfect car, going to the most gorgeous places for meetings, nailing all the conversations, selling yourself in each and every time with no objections, driving away every time with a win on your hands and coming home every day and drinking Moet with your perfect partner to celebrate the millions of dollars you are making. And achieving all this in the first 3 months.
It is usually messier than that, and for me it all looked a little like this.
Think I will start a business and follow this ‘feeling’ I have in my tummy … read a book called ‘Speak and Grow Rich’… bought a white board, made up some business cards on the computer and printed them off… wrote up some training formats, put a price on it… $250.00 (how did I come up with that… any formula… Nope, just thought is sounded good)…. rang some hairdressers… rang lots, because some didn’t want to know about me (yes, really, that happens), and then showed up, did my best and hoped for the best. Some went well, some didn’t and I went on.
Jacko was 6 months old and I would tell my clients when I had a meeting to sell in my program that Jacko would be with me. I peeled a big apple and the meeting lasted for as long as the apple. One day I had to stop the meeting because Jacko almost choked. Not pretty, very messy!
Had a big break… the CEO of a Hairdressing company was on the phone offering me the BIG speaking event at a conference…. I still remember the day so vividly… I was changing Jacks pooy nappy with the phone tucked under my chin while having a conversation about my fee… I remember thinking as he told me I needed to charge more…. that if only he could see what I was doing! Messy!
I was introduced in such a derogatory fashion one day that it took every ounce of strength to walk up on the stage afterwards…. and then I freaking owned it and got a standing ovation… a messy moment for her… it is not always about just us!
My first public shows had me scrambling to get numbers and early on I had to cancel a couple due to low numbers…. messy….but the scrambling always made me stronger and I still have to scramble for numbers… waiting for perfect. I still have to work to fill my calendar every year… and so I do, because I love it and choose to do it.
Every year, for the last 15 years… since Flash had his stroke, and Autism came by, I have had no idea how I am going to go away and what I am going to do with the kids, every week I just got up and prayed and rang people and trusted and then hopped on a plane and thanks to the Angels it worked. I was reminded today how often I was about to hop on stage and I rang home and Thomas had gone missing or Flash didn’t answer…. had he passed out, will Thomas be OK, what about poor Jack? Or the walls had been kicked in and windows broken… And then she said, ‘Julie you would walk up on stage and turn it on and do your thing’. And then rush to the phone afterwards hoping all would be OK… MESSY, STRESSY!
And I can not tell you how many times I have been on the phone to a client walking around the house trying to avoid Thomas throwing stones at me and swearing at me all the while pretending I was so perfect when in the back ground it was so bloody messy!!
And yet, here I am, 20 years on… still here… enjoying the ride, having fun, looking like a success…. do I ? I think? And still feeling kind of messy but very happy and accomplished and dare I say… successful!
Your road to success will be so much more peaceful and so much easier when you surrender to messy, bumpy, challenging but beautiful exciting and rewarding.
I think anybody who is successful has had a little bit of a messy path to walk on.
Life is messy, success is messy, love is messy and families are messy… get over it and just get on with it!
Perfect and Professional are so overrated. I choose Passionate, Purposeful and REAL and honest every time!
