Did you know that the Wizard of Oz was from Omaha, Nebraska? Sometimes I think he was actually from Lincoln and his name was Stacy.
Eventually, it is revealed that Oz is actually none of these things, but rather an ordinary conman from Omaha, Nebraska, who has been using a lot of elaborate magic tricks and props to make himself seem “great and powerful.”
I was at meeting this week where we talked about peer groups and what to talk about during them. My input was simple. Be honest. You go to all these meetings and you hear about the good. The great. The wonderful. You hear about how they succeeded. How they accelerated. How they perfected their trade and are doing great.
Those stories are just like The Great and Powerful Oz. Smoke and mirrors and magic tricks. Yes, those things happened, and they deserve to be celebrated. But damn, do they put some serious unrealistic expectations on the people in the audience who think that the troubles and tribulations that they are going through are out of the norm and no one else is going through them too.
We need to hear the struggles. The ugly, soul sucking, tear provoking struggles. We need to pull back the curtain and look the Oz in the eyes so that we can realize that life is full of hard and you have to go through a whole lot of hard before you reach the good. Even after you reach the good, you’re still going to come up against walls, self doubt, and confidence sucking moments.
I love where I am right now. Most of the time I feel complete and truly fulfilled. But there are days where I look at what I haven’t accomplished, and feel really crappy about where I am right now. There are days where the self doubt is crushing and leaves me desperate. I try to work harder, faster. Those are the days where I feel like a total failure and it doesn’t matter what great and incredible things have happened to me in the last 4 years. None of that matters.
How I feel right now doesn’t erase that 4 years ago, I just about walked away from it all. Called it quits. Looked for a full time job that would put me back into the work force and out of the state that my business had become. It wasn’t that the business wasn’t successful. It was. It left me stagnant and underwhelmed. Without a purpose. It was some even harder and heart breaking events that brought me to the realization that a change needed to happen and sent me on a 4 year journey to where I am now.
Being an entrepreneur is hard. You have good days, and those are the ones that you’ll probably pull out of your back pocket and show to the world when you are asked “How are things going with you?!”. We never really like to admit to others and come off as whiners. As complainers. As failures. Life is never all about good days. Good days don’t make us stronger or teach us lessons or motivate us to do better. Good days do not make us feel like we have a fire under our asses. Good days make us complacent. It is the hard days. The bad days. The no good, horrible, the sky is falling, kind of days that teach us the most. Those are the days that make us real. That break the smoke and mirrors and reveal the secrets of the magic tricks. Those are the days that we need to tell others, so that they know that they aren’t alone in this struggle.