Success in any area of life takes work. Real work. There's no shortcut to becoming the best.  When starting out in anything new, to become expert, it all comes down to consistent, focused and dedicated practice. You must train, practice and work some more until you are the best you can possibly be.  

Whether it's learning to sew or starting your own business, developing the skill only happens when you've worked at it day after day after day.

I’m not saying it won’t be fun, of course - there’s plenty of fun to be had.   But sooner or later the fun turns into hard work.  If you want to be the best.  It’s exactly the same when you start up a new business. I don’t care what anyone says, very few businesses are an overnight success. Despite all of the online promises of easy money, no prior knowledge required, anyone can do it - there’s NO magic overnight pill to becoming a sewing genius, a successful and profitable business or any other kind of success.   No shortcuts, no way, no how.

For every person who gets rich quick with some sort of formula or online “fail-safe” coaching system, there are 50 more folks who would have been wiser to donate their cash to charity.  

Success in any endeavour takes hard work, focus, determination, resilience and self-belief (at least 95% of the time).  We’re only human so, yes, 5% of the time we rest and perhaps even indulge in some sort of self-doubt.

But we don’t wallow in a pool of “What if it all goes wrong?”, we don’t blame and we certainly don’t make excuses.

I’ve discovered that business in 2019 reveals a very different landscape than it did when I began my own business journey, over 30 years ago.   It’s certainly no tougher to be in business in 2019 and it’s definitely not easier.  It’s just different with many, many aspects to consider that didn’t exist way back in the late 80's.

Today, new technical skills need to be studied and not only learned, but constantly and consistently updated almost at a speed that makes most peoples' heads spin.  The algorithms of yesterday become out of date in a heartbeat. So you have to stay current or you’ll quickly become irrelevant.

It’s a high mountain to climb when first starting out to do something new or start a new venture from scratch (unless you have the resources to pay all the varying gurus) to help navigate you through the maze of today’s global marketplace.  Speaking about business specifically, most start-ups don’t have huge (or any) budgets for SEO, website coders, photographic artists or social media visionaries and lets not even think about the rise and rise of Social Media Influencers!

Most new start-ups are like Bubs & Bobbins in that they are run by a Solopreneur.  I’m it. On my own.  All by myself, I'm where the buck stops and starts.  I do it pretty much everything with a whole heap of help from wherever I can find it.   

Google is my business advisor and research assistant.  YouTube is my teacher for some of my learning (and I’m so very grateful to have it) and I thank those (quality) contributors from the bottom of my heart almost every day.

I work from home, alone, with Bach or Bowie and two fur babies for company.   I have the joy of choosing to work at 2:00 am or 3:00 pm or whatever time fits my life from day to day.

I’m my own cheer squad when a healthy order hits my inbox (wild happy dancing has been known to occur) and I’m my own counsellor when I feel invisible in cyber world and motivation or inspiration is hard to muster, reminding me that it’s just the way I’m feeling today, it's me - it’s not them... and it will pass, fingers crossed. 

Pain doesn't last - it diminishes and fades when you have focus and determination.

Yes, getting started then building experience, skills and confidence is seriously hard work, but I absolutely know I will get there.  I know I will succeed!   Success for me means earning a fair living on my own terms, working to the absolute best possible standard for my customers and being appropriately rewarded for it.

How can I be so very sure I’ll achieve success when so many have stumbled and fallen before me?

Well, it’s pretty simple really.  I can be 95% sure because, like so many other learning curves, it’s when the burn begins, when I feel the pain of sticking with it despite it being uncomfortable, that’s when I start counting.  

How long I can bear it?  How long can I keep going, feeling the discomfort of more long hours, constant and ever growing workload as I work harder to gain momentum, build that dream business, pushing against that fugly mind monster that tries to drag me down?  

I remind myself that I get to choose and I choose to keep on trucking.  It’s a constant round of adapt and progress, adjust and progress.  I just don’t quit.  With time, the discomfort diminishes, as I continue to improve, get stronger and become more skilled.

As Muhammad Ali said, "Keep pushing ahead and when it starts to hurt, when it’s really getting tough, when you’re feeling like chucking it all in - push forward and keep on counting."  It's the ones who keep doing the things that count despite the discomfort - that win the game. Simple.  That’s what makes a winner.  That's when “success” arrives at your door. 

For those of you who may not know of Ali’s achievements, you should know this - across 61 fights and 56 wins, in his storied boxing career, Muhammad Ali was knocked down only 4 times.

I’m not a fan of boxing.  But I am a fan of Ali’s attitude to life and his work ethic.

He really was The Greatest.  In his vocation and in his life.

You, too, can be the greatest at whatever it is that you do.  So don’t even THINK about quitting.  You and I, we’ll get there.  And, where’s the fun in overnight success anyway?

Thanks for your company.

Lorraine x