ANECDOTE
My friend Jen sailed competitively through college and tried different careers but nothing “stuck.” So, she and her parents found a beautiful yacht and invested their savings to buy it so she could start her own charter business.
Jen drove up and down the East Coast searching for the perfect location to operate out of – and found it in Annapolis when she saw the Marriott had an unused dock by their waterfront restaurant.
She walked into the General Manager’s office and convinced him it would be a win for the property to allow her to rent that space.
People asked how she worked up the courage to do that – but she never thought of it like that.
She told me how her folks owned a boat when she was a little girl and they often spent summers aboard. Jen remembered them giving her $5 and sending her off in a dinghy to “get some ice cream.”
She laughed, “I didn’t realize that was their way of getting some privacy. What I also didn’t realize was those solo forays taught me to trust the world. My parents had confidence I could handle whatever came up, so I had confidence too.”
Instead of being afraid something might go wrong, just accept that things probably WILL go wrong at some point, and when they do, it’s an opportunity to be resourceful.
In my 30+ years as an entrepreneur, I’ve come to understand that entrepreneurs are explorers and adventurers at heart.
Entrepreneurs revel in their independence. They’re not intimidated by uncertainty, they welcome it. They find new ventures exciting (not frightening) because they trust their ability to “figure it out.”
Funny how the world rewards the resourceful.
ACTION
- Look back to clarify your beliefs using these as prompts.
Were you brought up to trust or distrust the world?
Were you encouraged to explore – to be entrepreneurial?
Were you given opportunities to “figure things out?”
Do you play it safe?
Do you worry about things going wrong or do you expect them to and just get resourceful when they do?
Look ahead to clarify what you’re going to believe from now on.
Start thinking of yourself as courageous.
Trust you can figure things out along the way.
Set things in motion, knowing if things go wrong, you can handle it.
Imagine your fulfilling life now that you see it as an adventure.
Write down how you’ll feel exploring new opportunities, going new places, making new friends, and delighting in new discoveries.
Here’s to being better.
Until next time,
Sam Horn