Earlier today, I was on a training call with a woman, and my heart really went out to her.
This woman had a small knitting and sewing business, but she said she could never “make it work.” Her husband is disabled and even though she has her small business and also works a couple days a week in a knitting shop, they are under deep financial stress. This woman has two children, aged 17 and 20, who both live at home, but neither of whom have jobs.
During the call, she said she didn’t have the time to work on her business. She said her family didn’t take her business seriously, that they didn’t give her time to work on her business. She said she couldn’t plan working hours for her business because her kids would need something from her or want a ride somewhere; that they expect her to drop everything for them when they ask for it.
This woman was literally in tears, stating that she was going to be losing her home in a few months. She shot down every suggestion that was given to her. She said she didn’t have time, she said she couldn’t do it, she said she’s tried to be successful in the past and it just didn’t work.
This woman is absolutely right. She doesn’t have the time, she can’t do it. Her business isn’t going to be successful.
She firmly believes that she doesn’t have the time. I could give her 10 different ideas on how to find the time, but until she decides to set aside even an hour a day to work on her business, she won’t. Her kids will keep running the show and taking advantage of her until she tells them to grow up and stop acting like that.
She also apologized several times for wasting my time.
All I could think was “You’re not wasting my time, you’re wasting YOUR time.”
Last week, I wrote a post titled “You Can Have Excuses Or A Paycheck, But You Can’t Have Both…”
This woman isn’t going to get any paychecks until she lets go of her excuses and starts believing in herself.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to this woman. I hope that one day she stops wasting her time and starts getting serious about her business. She is spending her time on making excuses on why she can’t work her business. Until she does let go of those excuses, she is just wasting her time.
If you find yourself doing this, please stop making excuses. Please stop wasting your time.
Oooh – this is so juicy and so freaking true. It takes guts to succeed and it’s NOT easy to overcome your self-worth issues.
Let’s face a harsh truth – not everyone is going to be successful – especially if you’re not willing to try something different.
Harsh but true and I love your take on it.