I want to share something that is breaking my heart. Over the last month Paige and I have had several conversations with amazing people, who have incredible gifts, who are feeling like throwing in the towel.
These are business owners who have a deep desire to help people, to change lives and to help heal the planet, but they feel like they have made too many mistakes. They say they are feeling like failures. Their family and friends think they're crazy. They feel like there is no reason to go on struggling.
This breaks my heart, because I also know what it feels like to not give up, to get to the other side of that and to experience success, and I don't want these women to stop before the music inside them gets out.
Now I want to share something that makes my heart sing...
Paige and I were watching an interview with the Jazz great Wynton Marsalis the other day and he said something that I think if every single heart-centered entrepreneur and solo-preneur can hear it and take it to heart, it would absolutely change their experience of being in business...
What did he say and why is it important to your business?
Well when the interviewer asked him about success, about breaking new ground and transforming the world of jazz, Wynton said, "If you ain't makin mistakes, you ain't trying."
What an amazing thing to say. So arguably one of the greatest and brightest living musicians and composers is saying that when transforming the world it's okay to not be perfect, it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to not be concerned with what others are thinking about us.
Now okay, you may be thinking, "Well that's music, but what about another field where it's 'okay' to make mistakes?"
Well here's something to ponder...Babe Ruth, who is famous for his home-run record, also held the record for strikeouts, he hit an amazing 714 home runs, but struck out an astonishing 1330 times. He's been quoted as saying, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
"Yeah, but that's sports, what's that got to do with being in business and being an entrepreneur?"
How about the poet Maya Angelou, who by the time she was in her early twenties, had been a streetcar conductor, a cook, a cocktail waitress, a dancer, a madam, and an unwed mother? Today, she is an autobiographer and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer". She says, "Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure so that in the end, she didn't fail at all."
What about the famous inventor and business man Thomas Edison? Do you know it took him 10,000 tries to create a light bulb that could be manufactured? Here's what he had to say on the subject, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
And what of Henry Ford who had no education and went broke 5 times before he succeeded? Well he said, "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."
The real secret here is not that all these incredibly successful people accepted, even welcomed, mistakes and failure, but that they didn't let the mistakes and failure stop them. They used it as an opportunity to learn and do better. They kept moving towards their vision - their heart's desire inside them.
Remember, the key to success is not to not get knocked down, the key to success is to get up one more time than you get knocked down.
Your Authentic Assignment
As you enter into a new year, allow your past to be your past. Stop beating yourself up for any mistakes you made. Learn from them, pick yourself up and try it again.
Like the saying goes, "If you knew better, you'd do better." Mistakes allow you to learn what you didn't know before. Don't let them stop you, don't allow them to keep you from getting your gifts out there. Like Wayne Dyer says, "Don't die with your music still inside you."
See any mistakes as the opportunity for success they are and use them to propel your business forward in the New Year, and please don't make the mistake of letting mistakes stop you.
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Putting into action the very system and principles they teach, Paige Stapleton and Brian Stark left careers that were leaving them feeling small and unfulfilled and followed their bliss! Now, as founders of Authentic Marketing Made Easy™, and The Authentic Marketing System™, they have created a life they love helping healers, practitioners, coaches and other small business owners learn the simple and holistic way to market and grow their service-based businesses, so they can attract more clients and make more money, while staying in integrity with their passion and purpose.