At least one of the pitstops you’ll have to make as an entrepreneur is that purgatorial patch of time where your sales/income hasn’t caught up to your six figure dreams. Hell, your mid-five figure dreams. And throughout this two year period (on average) where you’re thrusting forward with everything you’ve got, you’ll begin to realize you are actually in the matrix and “entrepreneurship” is another word for “personal growth catalyst.”
Money, you learn, isn’t just money either. It’s a wise and quiet pedagogue that looks an awfulllll like Obi-Wan Kenobi. And, until you can distance yourself from all the meanings you’ve attached to it, and just listen to what it’s saying objectively, it will swing you by the tail and gut you of your sanity.
WHAT MONEY IS TRYING TO TELL YOU.
You are either doing an awesome job, a sucky job, or a mediocre job of communicating the value of your product/service.
That’s it.
WHAT MONEY CANNOT TELL YOU (BUT YOU THINK IT CAN).
• That your product/service is a bad idea. (Or the reverse)
• That making it is really, really hard and you are probably always going to struggle. (Or that it’s fluid and predictable)
• That God is testing you. (Or God is blessing you)
• That you don’t work hard enough. (Or now that you made it, you won’t be required to reinvent yourself continuously)
• That you have to spend $5,000.00 online business school course/coach to learn how to be profitable.
• That you are cosmically/energetically blocked or some other New Age woo-woo that’s total bullshit.
Money is an impartial teacher. I wish I could say something gooey like money is your friend, or money loves you, or tape a sign to your mirror that says “I am a money magnet” but honestly, money doesn’t have feelings to invest one way or the other.
Also NOT true is that money is a cold-hearted, calculated entity that withholds itself, or that money is waiting around, tapping its fingers on its mahogany desk waiting for your to “be clear” on your “goals” or your “worth” — because again, money doesn’t have feelings to invest one way or the other.
Money is a tool and a measuring device. It’s data.
It’s played in layers like chess or a jigsaw puzzle.
In order to leverage the most useful insight from your money’s messages, emotional distance is required, and usually comes after several crying jags where one is simply forced to think of money in a new way. *cough*
STORYTIME.
I got to this point myself when I was in that stage of business growth where I didn’t have to have a second job any more, but I was still living month to month. Any setback could still have a disastrous effect on my ability to pay for my life with ease and confidence.
And then one month, I had both a client go MIA and ditch out on her payment and a collaborative project go sideways – one in which I had invested a lot of time and creativity in and was counting on for the income.
Months and months of toiling away, striving, struggling, and I just felt I couldn’t take the emotional stress of entrepreneurship anymore. I was at that place where I was considering quitting everything and working at Pottery Barn or Starbucks, where I still wouldn’t make ends meet, but at least it wouldn’t be “my fault.”
I went to sleep that night and woke up the next morning with an unsettled feeling and the tiniest bit of insight. I loved my work, I loved my clients, and I was too heart-broken to accept that it wasn’t gonna work out.
Obi-Wan Kenobi whispered: “If you want to come through this, you must draw from another time in your life which you learned this lesson.”
When was another time in my life when I had to totally give up knowing how it was going to turn out, unfurl my tentacle-like claustrophobic grip on a beautiful creation I was trying to bring into the world and surrender, while staying totally present and on board?
Oh yeah, that time I was giving birth to a kid.
This is what life does. It throws its arm around you and says, “Listen, Sugar. You’re gonna make it, and all these lessons you’ve been learning for the past 3-4 decades? You need to connect the dots from all of them so you can scale the labyrinth walls.”
Crazy, I know. But having money sanity came down to the willingness to be fully engaged while totally surrendering – which makes most of us humans black out with bewilderment.
Launching a business is closely paralleled with giving birth to a kid. Paying off a boatload of debt is closely paralleled to giving birth to a kid. Sometimes just making ends meet is closely paralleled with giving birth to a kid.
So, furtively harvested from the dual life events of pushing both a 9 pound baby and a self-sustaining business through a gloryhole of hallowed hope and possibility, I give you my 7 personal practices + attitudes that keep me from melting down about money.
- There is ebb and flow to bringing something great into the world. Moments of intensity followed by moments of nothingness. This is the intelligently-designed blueprint of creation. Trying to “rush it” doesn’t work. Trying to work harder doesn’t work. When it’s intense, work within the inspiration of the moment. When it subsides, get up from your desk and go camping.
- Having a plan in place is more for your peace of mind than a statement of how it’s really gonna go. That’s okay. Work your plan and adjust when needed. Stressing and freaking out that the plan needs to change will only tire you. Take a deep breath and re-center your peace and power. The money is coming.
- It is not your responsibility to try to make the process go faster. Your responsibility is to relax and get out of your own way, so the process can work. Untether from the need to predict and control the inflow of cash to your business (even though it is reasonable, responsible, and totally understandable to want to) and put your energy toward creating as as beautifully, soulfully, and authentically as you can.
Your creativity = currency.
Your freakouts = tearful binge watching the Bravo Channel which nets you zero dollars. - Your journey is YOUR JOURNEY. It’s fun and enlightening to listen to other people’s stories of how it went for them, but for better or worse, you will have your own process. It may go quicker, slower, require more effort, or mental tenacity than them. Don’t get hung up on feeling you should be further along. Remember you’re amazing! Afterall, you’ve made it this far.
- How long you’ve been at it says nothing about how much further you need to go. Just because it’s been hard, doesn’t mean it’s gonna stay hard. The breakthrough is coming quicker and easier than you think. Guessing how it’s going to play out is not your responsibility. Your job is to breathe, love yourself through this process, surrender, show up, be present, keep your eyes on the prize, and dance. The money is coming.
- Right when it’s the hardest, and you truly, truly KNOW you can’t do it anymore is when you are closest to success. Some people have easy labors/easy business launches. That’s rare. Most of us have to cross the Bridge of Surrender. The I-freaking-can’t-do-this-anymore / looks-like-I’m-gonna-have-to-quit bridge. (The same thing happens in baby labor. Right before the kid is born, you go through a thing called transition which causes you to emotionally quit). This is a scientific process and it produces great results. Just trust, keep letting go and surrendering, and focus on the love that you are creating. The money is coming.
- It feels like you’ve been striving for a long, long time and it’s easy to start thinking this is all there is. It’s not. I promise you, there will be a Wednesday afternoon where you uncork a bottle of Le Grand Courtage, skype your best friend across the country and tell her you just delivered a five-figure month. Hang tight mama, the money is coming.