I wrote this post a few months ago about growing a small business. I think it is perfect for the New Year and re-reading it has really got me thinking about my goals and resolutions. {No, I haven't done them yet....I am on vacation.}
Sometimes I sit around and partake in the futile task of worrying about my business.
Usually this worry has to do with growth. I worry that my business isn't growing fast enough. I wonder when it will be at "the" point. The point where I stop worrying.
There are so many examples of blogs, small businesses, etc that are overnight success stories. Or at least "success in one year" stories.
I love hearing and reading about these stories. They make me a bit envious. And excited. The potential of crazy growth excites me.
The excitement is what keeps me up at night...writing blog posts and designing and creating. The excitement is wonderful, but then worry creeps in. Why is my business not an overnight success? I have been at this almost two years {almost one year full time} and the numbers are increasing.
Slow and steady.
The steady part I love. The slow part is why I bite my nails.
All this has been on my mind the past few weeks. I think it is because last fall I was preparing to leave my dreadful day job and venture full time into Acute Designs. Now, it is nearly one year later and I am growing. I am making money. I am doing what I set out to do...just not quite in the grand scale that I imagined {yet}.
I am not afraid to dream. And I am confident that big, major things will happen. They might not happen tomorrow, but I will get there. I wish it would happen tomorrow but I hear that patience is a virtue...one that I should probably practice more.
The idea of slow growth was weighing me down last week and then I happened upon an Ira Glass quote on the blog, Sometimes Sweet. And...I felt like all was going to be ok with my world.
I felt inspired and justified. I felt ok with the growth of my potential.
This doesn't mean that I don't plan to work even harder to grow bigger and bigger, it just reminded me that overnight success if the exception, not the rule.
Here is the quote {For those of you that don't know of Ira Glass, he hosts the weekly radio show This American Life on NPR. It is only the best radio show in the history of radio shows...so if you aren't familiar with it, I highly recommend downloading a free podcast. I am a HUGE fan of Ira Glass and his show.}
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good.
It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have.
We all go through this.
And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.
Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.
It’s gonna take awhile.
It’s normal to take awhile.
You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
What do you guys think? Do you worry about growth, or just go with it? Too deep for a Monday :)?
The last line really spoke to me - I think so many people just give up but that will never be me. If there is one thing I am good at it is persistence and follow through.
Patience I need to work on, but persistence? I have got that one down.
0 comments:
Post a Comment