Do you want to be a rebel mom? Are you ready to take the idea of how is success defined, and turn it upside down?
If you followed the Momtrepreneur Life Coffee Chat, then you know that I am in the creative throes of writing a book. And not just any book. It is a book that takes all the ideas of “the right way” to do things and turns them upside down. Things like chasing your dreams and how success is defined. It is a book that gives moms permission to be a rebel mom and not fit into someone else’s idea of how to work and school.
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase using one of these links, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps me keeps things free for you, and who doesn’t love free stuff. For more information, see my disclosures.
This is a bit of a different post. I wanted to share a short excerpt from the book to give you a taste of what’s to come. This is a very small excerpt on how success is defined. Enjoy!
Success Stories?
If you look at the life of Steve Jobs, it is marked by failures. Yes, he eventually became wildly successful, but it took years. One of my favorite success stories to read is about Pixar. There are two books that I really enjoyed reading: Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and To Pixar and Beyond by Lawrence Levy. If you are familiar with the story of Pixar, then you know it took them well over 10 years to finally have a success with Toy Story. Steve Jobs poured his own money into Pixar month after month and year after year. Against the advice of all the “experts”.
Amazon is probably the biggest retailer in the world, one of the main reasons we love to hate it. They have everything. Need an obscure something for school. See if Amazon has it. Looking for a one-stop shop for all your Christmas shopping. Then lay on the couch, turn the fireplace on, pull out your phone, and get all your shopping done. And you can do it all from the comfort of your fuzzy pajamas. But for the first 20 years of its existence Amazon lost money. Many people thought Bezos was crazy for the narrow profit margins he created for the products.
Remember, this is how success starts, with failure.
The Reality
The reality is that there is only one Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. These people and their success is already taken. So let’s deviate from these paragons of business success. Let’s take an ethereal idea and make it tangible for you. Let’s keep in mind their years of “failures” before they became the wildly successful people we know them to be today.
One of my favorite quotes is: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts— Winston Churchill. It is hanging on the wall of our schoolroom/office. It reminds me and the kids that success is not a destination, but a journey. A journey for us to take and decide what makes it successful. And this journey always takes longer then we want it to.
It is a good reminder that we can define success on our own terms, but how exactly is it done?
There is no Such Thing as an Overnight Success
Yes, that can pierce your heart or make you sigh with envy or frustration. Any cocktail of emotions works when you read that statement.
I am a fan of the underdog. I’ve never cheered for the New England Patriots to win the Superbowl, I’ve always rooted for the team playing against them. I may not watch the Superbowl (I am not a football fan), but I will go for the team that is favored to lose. This is what happens when you live in a houseful of boys, they force you to take a side.
The stories of people overcoming huge obstacles to succeed in life, also moves me. Gifted Hands, the story of Dr. Ben Carson, is one of my favorites. Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, tells his own story of writing while working in a commercial laundromat. Amid the maggots and decomposing seafood, he wrote on his lunch break and after work.
When you read these stories or watch the movies of their lives, you start to think that success is fast. Or at least as long as it takes to finish the book or movie. Even though they are very upfront about the struggles. Movie makers leave out parts of a person’s life and writers may not share their deepest struggles. Or their deepest struggle isn’t yours. So we are left with the impression that success is always made in a straight line, without any bumps along the way. Or it should happen within a certain time frame.
We never see the years of training that a football team puts in to be good enough to make it to the Superbowl. We can never fully appreciate the years of dedication and sacrifice that someone has put in to be where they are today.
How is Success Defined for the Momtrepreneur
As a momtrepreneur you know the daily struggles you face wondering if your idea is good. Riding the emotional rollercoaster of starting a business. The ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like we are the only ones struggling, everyone else didn’t go through what we are going through. I recently listened to the Smart Passive Income podcast, and the interviewee gave this timeline: It takes 2-3 years to see any movement with a new business and five years to see any significant money come in.
In mom terms. You are pregnant with your body morphing and taking on a mind of its own. Then you need to give birth. Struggle through the sleepless nights. Take the baby from nursing to eating solids. Make it through the terrible twos, with somedays feeling like only one of you will survive it. And you aren’t confident that it will be you. Then potty training. Yuck! Running to the bathroom, cleaning up the accidents, and throwing away the underwear. Pulling your hair out because your child refuses to poop in the potty. Then one day it happens. You wake up and you are no longer dealing with tantrums. He can take himself to the bathroom. You realize your baby is no longer a tiny thing that needs you for everything. He has become an independent child.
When you have a baby he steals your heart and soul. He requires everything from you. When you start a business, it is the same commitment. It requires you to go all in. For those first few years, it can’t survive without you. Your business requires the nurturing of a mother.
How is Success Defined…it is not Overnight
Are you convinced? Let me say it again. This should be your mantra. Write it on your bathroom mirror, so you can remind yourself every morning. There is no such thing as an overnight success. Anyone that seems like an overnight success worked for years to get where you see them now. Your kids don’t grow up overnight and neither will your business. Feel free to sigh with relief and raise your child…I mean your business.
Conclusion: How is Success Defined
Mom this is a very short excerpt from the book, where we go even deeper into this topic of how success is defined. Where you have permission to break all the rules and define success on your own terms.
As a momtrepreneur, how do you define success?
0 Comments