I once worked with an incredible woman who took a chance on me and allowed me to run the newsletter service in her company, developing email newsletters for clients and selling courses about creating their own email newsletters.
When I had hit my three-month mark working with her, I had asked her to give me a review of my performance up to that point – I always found it helpful to receive honest feedback so that I could get an outside perspective on what I could improve upon and what I was doing correctly. During this review, she had said, “I think we connect so well because you have the mind and soul of an entrepreneur.”
Those words stuck with me. I kept replaying them in my head over the years, analyzing them, wondering if they were true.
Those words changed my life. When I started working with her, I was an employee. That was my mindset, that I felt comfortable working for others.
Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s absolutely not a bad thing. The world needs employees and lots of people require the stability a regular job can offer. However, there are many that are simply not cut out for the regular working life and need something different… something only a life of running your own business can provide.
After she had planted that one simple sentence into my head, my entire outlook shifted. Slowly, the more I replayed those words, the more my perspective shifted from, “I’m an employee” to “maybe I could do this, too. Maybe I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur someday.”
She became my mentor. I began to learn from her — to see how running a business was done. As I worked behind the scenes, helping her run her business, I was also convincing myself that perhaps I was cut out for running a business of my own. That flower of ideas she planted within me began to grow and blossom.
One day, I eventually had just enough courage to finally tell myself to go for it. I finally made the decision that I would be so much happier pursuing my dream of helping other entrepreneurs build their virtual empires and continue my nearly-lifelong passion of web development by starting my own company.
Without that one sentence that beautiful woman said to me – a sentence she most likely doesn’t even remember, and yet changed my very perspective on what’s possible for me – I would probably never have embarked on this journey.
What was your biggest inspiration on your journey? What was one moment that completely changed your life?