This is essentially my "Part 2" of the review for Blake Mycoskie's Start Something That Matters book I just finished reading. The first review was my thoughts on the book itself (which I loved, and seriously I recommend you get it and read it!) , this is going to focus more on the impact the book has had on me, and the way in which I plan on working towards starting my own something that matters.
But first, a little background...
I have been in my career field for around 7-8 years now, I have known that I want to be doing exactly what I have been doing since I was 15 and my uncle painted a gloriously magnificent picture in my mind of what Communications/PR/Advertising (and business) looks like... exciting, energetic, fast paced, hard, challenging.. and mostly just different and adventurous all the time. So, almost 13 years ago I settled on this as my path. All throughout college I knew what I wanted to do, I got a degree and worked in my field throughout college, graduated and jumped right into my field and have been in this field of study ever since... A little over a year ago I felt like I was supposed to go back to school (*tears*), so I have been pursuing a double masters in Business Administration and MS in Leadership.
I have worked in jobs that I loved, hated, was apathetic about, or incredibly passionate about. However, I have always loved helping those who have small businesses or new businesses understand things about communications, marketing, PR, advertising etc.. It has always struck me as sad and frustrating because they typically do the best they can, but there is no way new and small businesses can afford graphic designers, communications people, web designers, etc.. So, I love helping them where I can with whatever I can or at the very least directing them to the friends I have in the particular area they need help in. Essentially I have been doing some form of consulting for five or so years now.
So, while reading Start Something That Matters, I began thinking, why am I not actually pursuing consulting?.. I love it. I love everything about consulting... It is different every day, I get to help people with my skills, I get to network, I get to learn, I get to give business to my friends who are in various different fields.. but mostly, I love the fact that I get to help new or small businesses succeed, which makes a huge difference in the lives of the employees and their families.. The trickle down effect is astronomical!
One of the things that struck me the most about Blake and his approach to business and the philosophy's behind TOMS is how much he truly mixed profit and social responsibility. However, the social responsibility is really what sets the business side apart and makes it successful. The loyalty that is built when a business makes social responsibility one of the main goals is amazing to read in his book, and confirmed for me that everyone wants both of those things, to do something that has a greater purpose and provides/pays the bills. So, due to this, and the fact that I 100% agree with this in my own life and my own desires, the first 10% of income will go to organizations of the "clients" choosing (even before bills are paid).
So, my new business will look something like this... You are a new/small business, you are struggling, need help with a website, advertising, etc.. but you're working on an extremely tight budget. You would hire me to create a package that works for your needs.. after we have spent a decent amount of time building our relationship, my understanding of the needs and goals, I would coordinate with the various professionals (who all have businesses of their own) to help with the specifics needs of your package (web design, graphic design, photographer, videographer etc..) and you would then pick the ones with the styles that match your own tastes... We would work out the payment plan/options, and you would pick which charity you want your 10% going to (everyone has favorites)... but I would of course have a list of my favorites to choose from just in case (because I know so many people who work for amazing charity's as well). Then, I would commence to working to help your business succeed.
My something that matters is helping new and small businesses succeed whether by consulting for them or with them, while also supporting charities that make a difference.
This is a slow process to get this started and going, but I am pumped... Especially since I can start and grow this slowly while I am still working full time and getting my double masters (oye vey.. clearly I don't have enough to do). But, I now have a purpose behind the double masters and the things I am learning working for a national organization, all of these skills will be vitally important later.
Currently I am working on finding a name that captures my idea (feel free to send me any ideas you have), then getting the business squared away both legally, identity wise, and the look and feel of what I am doing (I cannot start a business claiming to help others without first following my own advice and getting websites and things)... Then (and until then) I will also be working on building my network of experts and professionals to partner with me (let me know if you're interested in partnering with me and joining my network). And of course, lots of prayer will be taking place in the next while for this whole thing.
Should be exciting!
Showing posts with label Confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Confidence. Show all posts
Nov 29, 2011
Feb 5, 2009
Confidence
So, last night I had quite an amusing conversation with a couple friends after campus church. (which btw was amazing and you should itunes it under Liberty University, then campus church)... Anyway, somehow we started talking about confidence and one of the girls pointed out I don't struggle with that. I just busted out laughing and was like "clearly you don't know me..." which caused her to seriously STOP and just look at me for a bit, then she asked... "Do you struggle with confidence all the time?" That little statement got me thinking...
What is confidence?.. Dictionary.com says that it's "noun - full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing." Nowhere in that statement does it indicate that can't include a nervous feeling too...
Because here's the thing, I act confident virtually all the time because I do believe in my God, my abilities, my education, my training, etc..etc.. but, that doesn't mean that inside I'm not nervous about meeting someone new or re-meeting someone I've only met once and have no idea if they'll remember me or being in a situation where I don't know what to expect. I get nervous for those things, but when push comes to shove I'll act despite my feelings.
A couple examples...
Meeting a complete stranger. I'm not talking about randomly bumping into someone and being nervous about it, I'm more talking about being somewhere like Sunday school and seeing a new person.. Essentially I have two options.. ignore them as if I don't see them or act like I don't realize I don't know them... or introduce myself. I virtually always choose to introduce myself. Why? Because chances are they are feeling awkward and nervous too.. and since I've been going long enough now I pretty much know who the new people are, which means they probably don't know anyone/many people. I've never once had someone be rude when I've gone out of my way to introduce myself... Virtually every time that I can remember it made a significant difference to them that I did that, and you can usually see their comfort level increase.. It's pretty cool :) But, regardless.. I still feel nervous about it, I just choose to act anyway, as though I don't.
You see I've begun to realize there are always going to be those uncertain feelings, but people who give into the uncertain feelings are never the people who change the world. It's the people who rely on what they know to be true that change the world.. They are the ones who realize, God is good and always there for you, you have the training/experience to back it up, sometimes just letting go and going with it can be the best most freeing solution.... and to experience those things you begin to realize it's not ever as bad as we work it up to be in our mind.. haha.. wonderful!
Another prime example...
Going to Ghana Africa over Thanksgiving. Let me detail out for you the process by which things happened (or in a lot of cases didn't)... I met Gl0ria (who was planning the trip) in the middle of October on the roof of a house we were helping to re-roof. We just carried on general chit-chat, until we began talking about missions trips.. she told me how she was going to Ghana Africa for the week of Thanksgiving.. and my response "I'm more than a little bitter that you're getting to go and I'm not..." so she responded "Come with me. Seriously we're meeting tomorrow to discuss finances.." So I told her I'd think about it and we'd go from there... The next day I met with them and met Jon (one of two guys going).. we talked about the trip and they both acted as though I was going ... Then I found out I had to decide by Wednesday (with it currently being Sunday).. ooooh dang.. So I began praying like crazy, called my dad and asked how I could give it to God in such a way that he would either clearly say yes or clearly say no. God clearly said yes. So I decided to go with 6 weeks til take off, and no actual money in my hands.. or anyone's hands actually. We needed $8,000 as a team and had roughly $0.. haha.. oh man. We did a few fund raisers, our first one brought in over $600!.. Then things kept coming up like needing a yellow fever shot.. which we found out a week in a half before we were to leave.. Monday (we were heading to Maryland Thursday) we got the shots.. but still had no visas.. and technically no passports either cause they were with the visas in Washington D.C... Oh, and as of Monday we had roughly $5000 of our needed $8000.. and have I mentioned yet that I hadn't met the guy leading the trip, and had only met Matt the other guy.. twice. How do you not feel nervous about a trip in a country you've never been to under these circumstances?
Literally THE DAY Jon and I were leaving (we were heading to Maryland the night before our scheduled departure day to stay with his family so they could take us to the airport), we got our passports and visas in the mail! I had to leave for Amsterdam 2 hours before the rest of the team (which at this point I still hadn't met the guy leading the trip) because our travel agent for whatever reason didn't schedule me at the same time.. Once in Amsterdam I for some reason couldn't communicate that I needed to know where the rest of the team was flying in and kept getting sent to the wrong gate (although according to them the plane was either already in, or delayed 2 hours!)... Again how do you not feel nervous about a situation where you are hours from departing to Ghana Africa.. have NO idea who your contact person is, or what the plan is at that point, and every time you ask the front desk about the rest of your team.. you get a different answer. I had no choice but to act confident.
After 3 unsuccessful tries I was in line again to once again try and explain what my situation was.. and I look down the hall and see Jon walking towards me. haha The wave of relief I felt is really hard to explain, I'm fairly certain he doesn't even understands how happy I was to see him! We hugged and exchanged stories about how excited we were and how he knew where to find me and what I was doing.. He took me back introduced me to Wayne who was leading our trip, and it was at that point that it was explained to me we would be doing evangelism in Ghana... no actual service project. Hmm.. ok, let me explain to you how completely unlike me it is to do evangelism... I NEVER feel comfortable doing it. I sorta feel like I should do something for them first to earn the right to tell them about my Jesus. But, nope that wasn't included in the itinerary... Haha.. Given that I'm already in Amsterdam, 3 hours from departure to Ghana for a week, I essentially have two options...
1. Act nervous and make others nervous. Bring up all the things I am unsure about and not confident about... potentially risking putting that in the heads of the people around me...
or...
2. Act confident and pray a lot about the fact that I didn't like the idea that we were planning "crusades" and I didn't know how to evangelize the Ghanaian people.
And the great thing is, I'm so glad I went because it changed my life forever. I am simply not the same person. I would do everything over again, I would go again or do something as equally scary just to experience anything close to what I did. God was so good.. but I was nervous and uncertain the whole time.. but I chose to act as though God was moving my steps anyway.. and I'm so thankful I did :)
You see, outwardly I seemed confident and I seemed excited. But, inwardly I was sooo nervous and scared that things were gonna turn out terribly. But you see, the bottom line is it's out of my control anyway. It either will or it won't work out, either way God's got it.
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23
So, if you ever wonder.. chances are I feel nervous, or uncertain, or scared, or have butterflies in my stomach, but I've realized that all the great things that are worth anything in life require me to act anyway. That's what makes them feel so great once you've done it, because you didn't know if you could, but then it happened and God showed up and it's amazing :) And sometimes acting confident is what someone else needs to see... and that too makes it worth it... So, a lot of times I act confident not because I am, but because the other choice isn't really a choice at all, but a way of living in fear of what "might be" and since my God is so big.. why would I choose to live in fear?
What is confidence?.. Dictionary.com says that it's "noun - full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing." Nowhere in that statement does it indicate that can't include a nervous feeling too...
Because here's the thing, I act confident virtually all the time because I do believe in my God, my abilities, my education, my training, etc..etc.. but, that doesn't mean that inside I'm not nervous about meeting someone new or re-meeting someone I've only met once and have no idea if they'll remember me or being in a situation where I don't know what to expect. I get nervous for those things, but when push comes to shove I'll act despite my feelings.
A couple examples...
Meeting a complete stranger. I'm not talking about randomly bumping into someone and being nervous about it, I'm more talking about being somewhere like Sunday school and seeing a new person.. Essentially I have two options.. ignore them as if I don't see them or act like I don't realize I don't know them... or introduce myself. I virtually always choose to introduce myself. Why? Because chances are they are feeling awkward and nervous too.. and since I've been going long enough now I pretty much know who the new people are, which means they probably don't know anyone/many people. I've never once had someone be rude when I've gone out of my way to introduce myself... Virtually every time that I can remember it made a significant difference to them that I did that, and you can usually see their comfort level increase.. It's pretty cool :) But, regardless.. I still feel nervous about it, I just choose to act anyway, as though I don't.
You see I've begun to realize there are always going to be those uncertain feelings, but people who give into the uncertain feelings are never the people who change the world. It's the people who rely on what they know to be true that change the world.. They are the ones who realize, God is good and always there for you, you have the training/experience to back it up, sometimes just letting go and going with it can be the best most freeing solution.... and to experience those things you begin to realize it's not ever as bad as we work it up to be in our mind.. haha.. wonderful!
Another prime example...
Going to Ghana Africa over Thanksgiving. Let me detail out for you the process by which things happened (or in a lot of cases didn't)... I met Gl0ria (who was planning the trip) in the middle of October on the roof of a house we were helping to re-roof. We just carried on general chit-chat, until we began talking about missions trips.. she told me how she was going to Ghana Africa for the week of Thanksgiving.. and my response "I'm more than a little bitter that you're getting to go and I'm not..." so she responded "Come with me. Seriously we're meeting tomorrow to discuss finances.." So I told her I'd think about it and we'd go from there... The next day I met with them and met Jon (one of two guys going).. we talked about the trip and they both acted as though I was going ... Then I found out I had to decide by Wednesday (with it currently being Sunday).. ooooh dang.. So I began praying like crazy, called my dad and asked how I could give it to God in such a way that he would either clearly say yes or clearly say no. God clearly said yes. So I decided to go with 6 weeks til take off, and no actual money in my hands.. or anyone's hands actually. We needed $8,000 as a team and had roughly $0.. haha.. oh man. We did a few fund raisers, our first one brought in over $600!.. Then things kept coming up like needing a yellow fever shot.. which we found out a week in a half before we were to leave.. Monday (we were heading to Maryland Thursday) we got the shots.. but still had no visas.. and technically no passports either cause they were with the visas in Washington D.C... Oh, and as of Monday we had roughly $5000 of our needed $8000.. and have I mentioned yet that I hadn't met the guy leading the trip, and had only met Matt the other guy.. twice. How do you not feel nervous about a trip in a country you've never been to under these circumstances?
Literally THE DAY Jon and I were leaving (we were heading to Maryland the night before our scheduled departure day to stay with his family so they could take us to the airport), we got our passports and visas in the mail! I had to leave for Amsterdam 2 hours before the rest of the team (which at this point I still hadn't met the guy leading the trip) because our travel agent for whatever reason didn't schedule me at the same time.. Once in Amsterdam I for some reason couldn't communicate that I needed to know where the rest of the team was flying in and kept getting sent to the wrong gate (although according to them the plane was either already in, or delayed 2 hours!)... Again how do you not feel nervous about a situation where you are hours from departing to Ghana Africa.. have NO idea who your contact person is, or what the plan is at that point, and every time you ask the front desk about the rest of your team.. you get a different answer. I had no choice but to act confident.
After 3 unsuccessful tries I was in line again to once again try and explain what my situation was.. and I look down the hall and see Jon walking towards me. haha The wave of relief I felt is really hard to explain, I'm fairly certain he doesn't even understands how happy I was to see him! We hugged and exchanged stories about how excited we were and how he knew where to find me and what I was doing.. He took me back introduced me to Wayne who was leading our trip, and it was at that point that it was explained to me we would be doing evangelism in Ghana... no actual service project. Hmm.. ok, let me explain to you how completely unlike me it is to do evangelism... I NEVER feel comfortable doing it. I sorta feel like I should do something for them first to earn the right to tell them about my Jesus. But, nope that wasn't included in the itinerary... Haha.. Given that I'm already in Amsterdam, 3 hours from departure to Ghana for a week, I essentially have two options...
1. Act nervous and make others nervous. Bring up all the things I am unsure about and not confident about... potentially risking putting that in the heads of the people around me...
or...
2. Act confident and pray a lot about the fact that I didn't like the idea that we were planning "crusades" and I didn't know how to evangelize the Ghanaian people.
And the great thing is, I'm so glad I went because it changed my life forever. I am simply not the same person. I would do everything over again, I would go again or do something as equally scary just to experience anything close to what I did. God was so good.. but I was nervous and uncertain the whole time.. but I chose to act as though God was moving my steps anyway.. and I'm so thankful I did :)
You see, outwardly I seemed confident and I seemed excited. But, inwardly I was sooo nervous and scared that things were gonna turn out terribly. But you see, the bottom line is it's out of my control anyway. It either will or it won't work out, either way God's got it.
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23
So, if you ever wonder.. chances are I feel nervous, or uncertain, or scared, or have butterflies in my stomach, but I've realized that all the great things that are worth anything in life require me to act anyway. That's what makes them feel so great once you've done it, because you didn't know if you could, but then it happened and God showed up and it's amazing :) And sometimes acting confident is what someone else needs to see... and that too makes it worth it... So, a lot of times I act confident not because I am, but because the other choice isn't really a choice at all, but a way of living in fear of what "might be" and since my God is so big.. why would I choose to live in fear?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)