When I started my first business, I had no idea why I was doing it. I'm serious! Actually, if I'm being completely transparent, I didn't truly think of it as a business.
Sidenote - I think this shows up a lot in the real estate realm. A lot of the industry doesn't think of it as entrepreneurship, even though it is one of the most challenging entrepreneurial spaces in terms of relationships and stress and life transition. Anyway, I digress.
I didn't have a clear understanding of what my contribution was going to be or the impact I wanted to create and so I floundered. I put my energy (and money) where other people told me to because I didn't have anything to evaluate by other than gut instinct and feeling. As powerful as those things are, with the absence of purpose there is only short term evaluation.
The other thing with a lack of purpose is that on tough days, and as a start up there are A LOT of tough days, I didn't have anything to latch onto that would keep me going. That would help me to understand how the challenge or the struggle was worth continuing.
I almost quit.
Now I'm pretty stubborn so almost quitting came in year 3. But regardless of whether it was month 3 or year 3, I wanted to throw in the towel.
And then I happened across "Start with Why". It gave me this context that I didn't have to do business the way everyone else thought was "right" or "the way", but that I could lean in from a place that aligned with me and that "my people", the ones who shared in purpose, values or belief would come along for the ride.
Since I was going to quit anyway, what was the harm in trying?
Guess what? It worked!
My business started to grow. My confidence started to grow. I decided not to quit.
6 years later, I decided to start a second business and coach other entrepreneurs. And wow was it a different experience. I started out this time with a clear sense of purpose - to empower women to find their fire, trust their intuition, and live their purpose so that they lead their most powerful and fulfilled lives as their whole selves.
Everything we do gets filtered through that lens. Every opportunity that presents gets filtered through that lens. And every day when I show up, I show up for that.
If you haven't done the work to get clear on your purpose, can I encourage you to?
xoxo
Juli