This year I celebrate 10 years of entrepreneurship. October 2006, I walked away from my cushy, corporate six figure job and title to start my branding firm, Velvet Suite. I started from my living room without a big contract or brand recognition. Wait…What am I doing?
Before we pop bottles and send a confetti emoji…let me be clear. Birthing a business is the hardest work I have ever done. Many called me crazy. “Are you sure? You have such a good thing going with your job. How are you going to make money and maintain your lifestyle?”
There were many days when I cried to God and said… “What have I done.” “I have no life!!! How in the world am I going to (fill in the blank)?” Let’s see…pay my car note, pay my rent, get the business line of credit, get enough sleep, oh and find a life partner who will understand this madness called my life!
In these moments you come face to face with your fears and doubts. Yet, I learned to trust God with what I could not see and to give to Him what felt impossible to me.
Over the years the nature of the challenges has changed. From survival to scaling and from building a brand to building teams, from being driven to being balanced and now to establishing a legacy for my family…all of the impossibilities were designed to grow my faith muscle. As an athlete I know muscle isn’t made it is built. It takes exercise, repetition and tearing it down to build it back up.
At the time, my motivation wasn’t money. It was freedom. Could I get paid for doing what I love? Could my true and authentic purpose make room for me in the world and could my existence make a difference from my little living room in Cincinnati, Ohio?
The answer was NO. Knowing your purpose and being passionate was not enough. Owning your purpose and being committed to do the work around building your passion into a profitable enterprise is what it takes to achieve freedom. Building a scalable brand will sustain your legacy.
It took many years of painstaking trial and error. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. But everyone can be entrepreneurial. You can build where you are, create, design and own your own work. Patent your ideas and develop your own place of worth in the world.
I’m on the other side of that journey and my business baby is now 10 years old. No, my life by no means is problem-free but I don’t have the same issues I had when my business was an infant.
On the other side of enduring 10 years, I have impacted more lives, done more of what I dreamed and made more money and experienced the most freedom in my life. It came at a price. The cost was my comfort.
I had to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I realized that I had become a slave to fear and doubt. This two-headed monster tries to pop its head up still but I’ve learned to look at impossibilities differently.
The impossible is only impossible until someone makes it possible. Walking on the moon was impossible until Neil Armstrong. Now it is possible. It was impossible to be the fastest man alive until Usain Bolt defied that reality. Today, someone else is working hard to be the next fastest man alive.
I’ve learned to love impossible situations because it gives me an opportunity to take my impossibilities to the one that makes all things possible, God.
One of my favorite verses – Luke 1:37 – For With God Nothing Shall Be Impossible.
Many people will look at my story from the outside and say, “Wow, you have done so much and you actually made your dream a reality.” Yes, I have done some things but I vow not to romanticize my past. I’m grateful but I believe the best story has yet to be told.
I encourage you to journal your impossible situations. What has you feeling stuck right now? What keeps you pacing the floor at night? Write it down before God. Journal your journey.
When I write down my fears, my failures, my doubts, I can record how I’m feeling but then I can give it to God and leave a blank space for Him to answer.
When I can look back over those posts and those writings, I get encouragement and I build my confidence. I see He worked it out and I made it through!
Remember, an impossibility is simply an opportunity for you to work your faith muscle and take it to the next level. It’s time to FLEX!!!!
I’d love to hear how you have overcome the impossible. Please share with me and our community below.