Talk To Me In 3 Years

My heart breaks for the businesses that have recently closed. And for those of us fortunate enough to still be running our businesses, I’ve been thinking about what it’s going to take to keep going, to stay consistent, to choose to be unstoppable.

Are we willing to show up and do the work day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year?

Full disclosure, it took me nearly three years to hit my stride in my business. When I left the “safety” of the corporate world six years ago to launch my coaching practice, I naively thought that the hardest part was behind me. I didn't know how long it would take to get to a level of success that felt solid.

And I remember sometime around year three having a conversation with a friend who is a successful salon owner about how I felt as if I was finally having some real success in my business. She said, “well, of course, it does take about three years.”

What? Nobody told me about three years.

And I started noticing, with my entrepreneur friends, clients, and people whose work I deeply respect, that three years (give or take) is a thing. Don’t believe me? Just look at the work of Sara Blakely from Spanx and Jamie Kern Lima from It Cosmetics, both wildly successful entrepreneurs who speak candidly about the years it took to grow their business.

You may not want to hear this, especially if you’re in the early stages of running your own business or if COVID-19 has negatively impacted your business. It will probably take a lot longer than you think and be more challenging than you imagined to reach a healthy level of success. And you’ll have to choose over and over not to give up, to be unstoppable.

And I know that’s not popular to talk so openly about how things were hard. There are lots of coaches or “experts” with offerings (advice, courses, coaching, etc.) of how things can be easy and can happen fast, and all you have to do is hire them to learn the secrets to make 6-figures in 60 days or quickly pivot your business due to COVID-19, blah, blah, blah.

And when I see those things, it pisses me off because it sends an unrealistic message that if you don’t easily make 6-figures right out of the gate, you’re doing something wrong and you’re a failure, and you’ll never make it. And none of that is true.

So if you’re on the entrepreneurial road and things aren’t happening as fast as you’d like or feel particularly challenged now, don’t worry. Keep showing up and do the work day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Choose to be unstoppable.

And talk to me in three years!