Saturday morning I sat in front of my computer, listening to a guy
out in California talking to a friend of mine who lives out in PA about
his business. A friend of mine who lives down in Florida won the
basebcall cap that my Philadelphia friend brought back from Taiwan
after the team he helps coach won the gold medal. Now that's cool, but
the really cool thing was sitting there thinking; there's a reason I'm
hearing this right now. My friend the hitting coach talked about the
mental approach to the plate, and as he spoke I nodded along in my
computer room. I wish I would have had the foresight to write down what
he said, because I don't remember most of it, but I remember him talking
about losing, and then winning, and how he didn't have much to tell his
team when they were preparing for the championship game because they
had put in the effort required to win.
I spent yesterday morning writing up something that would explain
what my company does. When I was finished, I was proud of what I had
accomplished. Then I stayed up too late because my daughter couldn't
stop coughing, and something funny happened. As the night wore on, I
noticed that my decisions became worse, and worse. Pretty soon I was
regretting every word I had written, and bemoaning having sent what I
wrote to so many people. I tried telling myself that people make
mistakes all the time, and if people didn't like what I had sent, the
world would keep on turning, but I couldn't let it. Sometimes people
have great advice, but if I don't like or trust them, I'm not going to
listen to them. So that made me realize that sometimes people don't
listen to me because I haven't earned their trust, and that's okay,
because I'm not out to win the trust of everyone. There are people I
want to work with, who also want to work with me, and those are the
people that I need to worry about.
This morning I woke up to two emails from people that I do like and
trust who know me, and what my business is about, perhaps even more so
than I know myself. Both of them had very positive and encouraging
feedback for me, and I was even more grateful for it after the rough
night I had had. I have an unofficial list of mentors, people that I
respect and admire, and I'm going to remember this lesson as I move
forward. I will not push my well intentioned advice on others, nor will I
subject myself to advice from people that I don't respect because it
just doesn't work. There are things I need to do, and I did end up
acting on the advice of the guy who told tried to fix something that I'm
not sure was broken. I built a network of amazing friends when I worked
in the therapeutic shoe industry. I had retail customers who loved me,
when I worked at the smoothie shop people came there because of me, I am
a fabulous networker, and I won't accumulate much money while I'm in
business for mysely, but I'm going to call the shots, and I'm never
going to represent myself as something I'm not.
Shoe fitting is not a glamorous job. It's humbling to have to get
down in front of someone else's feet, but if you're a shoe fitter, and
you try to make your title fancy, you've disrespected yourself, and your
profession, and I refuse to do that so go me. Tomororrow I'm going back
to be a substitute lunch lady at the school that a friend of mine works
at. I had fun working with her today, and the extra money will be nice
too. I met back up with a coach that worked with my girls when they
played soccer, the woman I'm going to be working for has a son who plays
D1 football, and opportunities are everywhere if that's the only thing
you want to be seeing.
Take care,
Jess