Dear Entrepreneurs,
When we all hear that a business has failed, you only hear people say things like:
“Oh, it was due to lack of capital;”
“He ran out of funds.”
“Her marketing hypotheses were flawed;”
“His business model was faulty”
“She didn’t scale fast enough.”
“Cash flow was bad”
“Management couldn’t lead”
“The industry was tight”
“No infrastructure”
“The product was wrong”
“The value proposition was watery.”
“His CAC was too high and unsustainable.”
“…. yada yada yada.”
But you hardly hear people say that a business failed because the entrepreneur had bitterness in his or her heart.
Well, I think maybe because as a society we hardly consider or think through such issues.
Maybe because they are rather intangible to be regarded instantly as causatives in our postulations.
How do you even plot a graph for that or tell your investors or stakeholders that you failed because you had bitterness in your heart?
It doesn’t make “economic” sense, does it?
You see guys,
I have this close friend who has failed in so many businesses she put her hands in.
She failed not because she wasn’t smart enough or she didn’t know what to do.
Damn, my friend is very sound!
But from my several discussions with her, I found out she was being held down by bitterness in her heart – bitterness that was sown many years ago.
She kept falling off her own wagon.
One day, she called me and said she was contemplating suicide because nothing was working.
I told her straight up:
“Babe, you have bitterness in your heart and you have to deal with that, first!”
I told her she didn’t need a business strategy; that what she needed was a healing strategy.
I connected her to some professionals and stuck with her by the side.
Today, I am glad she has found her rhythm.
She has healed and is currently in the US studying for her Master’s.
The other day, she called me on phone and was just bouncing all over the place with excitement and gratitude.
Guys, let me ask you:
Have you bothered to figure out what bitterness is doing your business?
It could be from you or maybe from your staff.
Could it be that’s the reason why your business hasn’t taken off the way it should, even after all your push?
This is 2019 closing in on you.
It is high time you let go.
Well, I am sure it is not as easy as it sounds off my keyboard.
But seriously, you really need to heal.
Some of us may even argue that this isn’t true, that bitterness is not my portion,
LOL,
But then that could the underlying issue holding your business from growing.
I hope this period offers you an opportunity to reflect, own up to the truth, and be bold enough to set yourself free.
The journey ahead is far.
Let’s travel light.
Written by Chinonso Ogbogu