This weekend my family and I were blessed to take part in a wedding where my entire family was involved in one way or another in the ceremony. It was at this point where I realized how much life and business have in common. Not everything in your life will go your way. There will be obstacles. There will be people that wrong you. There will be fears and there will be failures in your life and in your business. You can be certain of this. There will almost certainly be some amazing times, celebrations and tear jerking times as well especially when you see people grow in a way that you didn’t think was possible. The difference between these two things is how you handle the obstacles, fears and failures. My second child made me realize this in amazing detail Saturday night and I am blessed to share it with you today.
My daughter Emily was blessed to be one of the flower girls (my youngest daughter Avery was the other one) and at the last second, my usually extremely extroverted daughter froze. She panicked when she saw the church full of people and couldn’t move down the aisle. I was unable to help because I was at the end of the aisle waiting for my son, the ring-bearer, to make his way down to the rest of the wedding party. While she froze, her younger sister, oblivious to any obstacles, began her journey to join the rest of the party gleefully throwing flower petals as she strolled down the aisle. The wedding went off without a hitch and the audience had no idea of what was supposed to happen and didn’t and the happy couple was wed successfully. But Emily, who knew she didn’t perform well, was still struggling with the fact that she wasn’t successful. This carried over to the dinner and reception. She was so upset she didn’t eat much and “just wanted to go home”. When I told her that this ceremony wasn’t about her that it was about the bride and groom, she lost it and began crying. I took her outside for a break. And this is where the faith, heart and growth of a little girl can make a large man like myself cry. My always happy, ever confident little girl looked at me and said “Daddy you are never scared or sad about anything. How can I be like you?” She continued, “You speak in front of lots of people and help them all the time without being scared.” Fighting back emotion, I had an amazing moment with my daughter, one in which I am sure she will never forget, and one that I know I will never. I am thankful for moments like this as a parent.
You may be asking what does this have to do with business? You see my daughter assumed that I don’t have fears (boy is she wrong). That adults don’t have trials or fears or failures. I shared with her some of my current fears and told her that life isn’t about failing or the obstacles we have, but how we handle them. The reason I am able to help people with their business challenges is that I have had my own in the corporate world or seen many others in my consulting tenure and learned from that valuable experience as well as my failures.
The reason I believe this relates to business is that the difference between us as adults/business owners and children is that we are afraid to talk about our issues, admit our mistakes or ask for help. Worse yet, we may think we don’t need help. This is the main reason, in my opinion, that businesses fail, owners don’t have work/life balance and that success isn’t achieved at the level it should be. This little girl wanted to know desperately how to not be scared next time and how to move on from her failure. Not only was she OK asking how, but she took the advice and had the heart and mind to pick up, move on and go party her butt off on the dance floor the rest of the night! What if we all had the humble heart and mind of a child. What if we asked for help more often? What could we achieve in life and in business? You will never know if you don’t humbles yourself and act more like a child once in a while.
This is the hardest part of being an adult and a leader. Don’t wait to talk to someone and at least get some good advice with the challenges you are facing. It just might help you be able to dance your way into more success and happiness in your business! Contact us today for more information!
