I try to blog when the urge hits me. I have a few "scheduled things" I try to do every month because I'm awesome and I want to share the love with all of you. But every now and again I feel an idea push it's way to the top of my cranium, knocking on my skull to be let out...Tonight is such a time.
I'm sitting here talking with dear friend and jewelry designer, Melli of Melli's Trinkets, discussing marketing ideas and some thoughts I have about my business in general. Now for those who have been following along I have been talking a lot about some changes I've been making, revamps to old systems (thank you Jenny Shih for your awesome e-book!), and just what the lovely Lissa Rankin calls "ass in chair" work.
But what does all that "work" amount to? If you're a solopreneur some of it, the day to day necessities of marketing and promoting, and even the creating of stock if you're a handmade artist like me seems like it doesn't really pay off. Sure, when you sell a product you made, it pays off. When you gain a new follower or like and it leads to a sale or an order it pays off. But in the every day you just don't see an immediate result much of the time.
Now really marketing and promoting is a vast and deep subject, and while I'm not covering it here it's on the list of things to talk about at some point. My real point is that I came to a singular notion while discussing the definitions of failure & success and what it meant to me and my business and what it can mean to others.
Success is not a number. (Go ahead and share that quote right now!) I'm sure we all know this, but it can be easy to forget how widely the definition of "success" (and "failure") ranges. There are all sorts of successes everyday that we overlook. It's a success that you wake up in the morning for example. And it's in thinking about this that I realize I don't even have a solid hold on what I think success is. In fact, my version of success has been (from an early point in my childhood) entirely contingent on the definitions and accomplishments of others.
I know I'm not the only one, but I also know that that realization is just not something we want to come to grips with necessarily. Yet it is freeing, so very much so that its a little laughable. So I challenge you to look at what success & what failure are to you. Really get to their core and then think, where did these ideas come from? Are they authentic to what you think, how you want to feel, or are they ideas accepted and imposed upon you by others?
Success is being happy with what you've got and still being able to do more without feeling attached or driven by that need. (Agree with my definition, share it!) Leave me some comment love and share your views below!
Aradia
of
Aradia's Hand
No comments:
Post a Comment