An Encouraging Word to My Friends in Business

Stop looking at someone’s middle and comparing it to your beginning.

“Beginnings” are so humbling, jam-packed with hard work and hustle, and usually full of thinking you’re doing it all wrong.

If you haven’t been in my life long enough to know any of my beginnings, you may be thinking we got here so easily. That’s the thing about sharing your life and business for all to see. People don’t know your deepest struggles and humble beginnings and it’s really easy for them to assume you got where you are overnight.

If you’re looking at peoples’ lives or businesses right now and thinking, “I could never do/have what they have”, please remember a few things.

-You’re looking at a lot of hard work that you didn’t get to see. You only see the end result.

-You didn’t see their beginning. You didn’t get to journey with them through the trials and the pain, the fear, and the excitement. You didn’t get to see when they wanted to start over, when they wanted to cry, and especially when they wanted to quit.

So, please friend, do yourself a favor and stop comparing your life and your business to people on the internet. Their middle isn’t your starting line and it isn’t fair to yourself to think that!

I recently traveled to Waco to visit Magnolia and I felt myself falling into the trap of comparison. For me, standing in the incredible empire Chip and Joanna created gave me a feeling that it came easy for them to build this amazing brand. It all seemed so effortless. Like it happened overnight. And I begin to question all that I’ve done to build my own business. Making assumptions about their journey made me wonder if I’m doing it all wrong. But as you know, building anything is never easy. It takes one step at a time and sometimes those steps are very small. It didn’t happen for them overnight and the same is going to be true for you and me.

It’s easy to look at other peoples’ businesses and admire what they’ve built and think it can never happen for you. Maybe you’ve even thought that they’ve had it easy, or that you couldn’t do what they’ve done because of xyz. Or maybe you’ve even talked yourself out of something you love, something you’re good at, because you don’t know where to start or you’re afraid you’ll fail.

But those are just the lies we let the fear of something new tell us. Don’t let the fear and the comparison creep in and steal your desire to build something beautiful.

If you are new to your business journey, I hope you always remember, no matter what season you’re in, don’t judge your story based on what you see from others. We all started somewhere and I promise you, it wasn’t at the top.

 

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