My favorite part of the Noah's Ark story is not that he listened
to his god and therefore managed to save mankind and the
animals, and it's not the rainbows, or even the dove as a symbol
of divine peace and love. My favorite part happens long before
the rains begin to fall. I love that no matter how much people
laughed and scoffed at what he was doing; Noah still went right
on building that ark. Think about how many days, weeks, months
it took to build that thing and all the while they were mocking
him. His commitment and tenacity is an awesome example of doing
what you believe in no matter what those around you might think.
Noah was willing to look foolish in the eyes of everyone around
him so that he could fulfill his destiny. As an entrepreneur, I
find that story quite inspirational. How many of us were laughed
at or mocked when we first started our adventures into
self-employment.
People continually say, "Oh you're so lucky! I wish I was a rich
business owner!" whenever they encounter a successful
entrepreneur. I find that statement to be ignorant and somewhat
insulting. Like Noah, most entrepreneurs started out with a
vision of some sort, a passion, and a strong sense of purpose as
they began building their business. Many of us are shot down
from the very start before we've even begun. The minute we start
telling friends and family of our plans, they start reminding us
that we are not smart enough, talented enough, or wealthy enough
to launch such a dream.
I remember years ago when I first took my big leap of faith and
quit my 'real job' to create Tomorrow's Edge. My children and my
best friend supported me, but everyone else sweetly and politely
reminded me of all of the reasons that I should not do it. A
friend of mine called me on the telephone to remind me of how he
had told his boss to go to hell one day and quit his job to
start his own company. Two years later and bordering on
bankruptcy, he was begging that same boss to forgive him and to
take him back on as an employee. Didn't I know just how many
people fail at self-employment within the first couple of years?
Was I crazy to even consider such a thing!
A woman who had been like a second mother to me for many years
told me that since I didn't have a formal college degree and a
doctorate in mental health, that I was not qualified to even
think about doing the work that I was about to do.
A woman from my church who had been really close to me got
really angry and chewed me out one day because she said I was
trying to start my own church and was trying to copycat our
minister. Her loyalty to our minister and her dreams was lovely,
but I really didn't see how Tomorrow's Edge was ever going to be
a church or even a religion.
My own extended family never even heard me as I told them over
and over for the first five years of the company's existence
that I was even doing this thing. They all acted like I was
sitting home painting my toenails pink every day. Most of my
family still really has no clue what I do and why I do it.
Does any of that matter? Heck no! These people's opinions of me
and of my goals didn't really change a darn thing. And that's
the point. When you have a goal, a dream, a vision, a mission
that burns a hole in your soul when you are not working at it,
then you are willing to look like an idiot and a stubborn old
fool if that's what it takes to succeed. So what if you don't
have a loving support system. It's your dream, your goal, your
vision, your mission - not theirs. If they were meant to do it,
then they would have that relentless fire burning in the depths
of their souls to roll up their sleeves and help you. It was
never theirs to love in the first place, it was always meant for
you and you alone.
If you don't have the backbone, tenacity, focus, drive, and raw
passion to get beyond what other's think of you and your dreams,
then you have no business trying to be self-employed. Make a
fool of yourself, so what! What if you fail? Who cares? Most
successful entrepreneurs have a handful of failures under their
belt before they finally learn all of the little business
secrets and such that is required in order to become fiscally
stable and profitable. You are going to have some of your
product lines fail and some of them are going to sell. You are
going to have employees flake off and some who will be
incredibly loyal and helpful. You are going to have last minute
disasters that nearly bankrupt you and you're going to have
windfalls that make it all worth while. Self-employment isn't
for the weak and the easily swayed. If your family and friends
can make you question whether or not you have any business
starting your own company, what do you think your competitors
are going to do to you? They'll chew you up and spit you out.
The naysayers are your practice customers and your practice
competitors. They give you the opportunity to seriously answer
the important questions: Are you committed, really committed? Do
you have what it takes to stand up for what you truly believe
in? Can you sell the nonbelievers on the viability of your
ideas? Do you believe in your goal? Do you believe in yourself?
Can you defend your decision to go into business for yourself
without getting angry and emotional? Thank your family and
friends for mocking you!
Copyright 2005, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge
"If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the
nearest land was 1,000 miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd
despise the one who gave up." - Abraham Maslow, Psychologist
About the author:
Skye Thomas is the CEO of Tomorrow's Edge, an Internet leader in
inspiring leaps of faith. To read more of her articles, free
previews of her books, and her astrology forecasts, go to
www.TomorrowsEdge.net. Webmasters interested in generating more
repeat traffic to their websites are invited to visit
www.TomorrowsEdge.net/horoscopes-generate-website-traffic.html.
Written by: Skye Thomas
Tom Cruise: Crazy in Love, or Just Crazy? - Steve Sommers Tom Cruise really wasn't the best person to make the case for the overuse/misuse of psychiatric/psychotropic drugs. The way he's been behaving lately, it looks like he might be badly in need of the aforesaid drugs himself, you know, because of the...
Social Considerations For A.I.(Artificial Intelligence) - Noel A Pierre Dennis Gorelik, a Senior Developer at IBM and creator of the PCnous artificial intelligence system, identifies a weakness of an AIS (artificial intelligence society, consisting of computers trained to 'think'), in that it was not born through...
Ibogaine Drug Addiction Treatment: Breaking Through to the Core - Eric Taub "I have been held by the Goddess and turning back is not an
option. I pray this African medicine gets out to the general
population where major changes will occur. Doesn't the timing
seem right?"
These are the words of Gary, a former...
The Matter of Political Philosophy - Punkerslut When an individual studies political philosophy, it is usually with the intent to understand the core principles that govern the political life of a city, a region, or a nation. What is it that motivates or causes a mayor to be just, or to be...
e-Book on Russian Women (Part 2) - Annas Agencye Russian women in Society RW have for a long time been competing to gain equal status in Russia. Although I think competing is the wrong word. I think most women have resigned themselves to the fact that they just need to wait for changes to take...
