What Inspires Me: Please Tell Me I Can't

Tell me I "cannot" do, be or have something – and that is the surest way to inspire me into action.

What inspires me is simply when the ‘impossible becomes possible’ – to tackle a problem and never give up, no matter how challenging.

The pet name my peers gave me at university was ‘Num’ – because it rhymed with dumb... I had an idea that I was not the smartest academic in class – and that there were definitely cleverer students on campus. In fact my own father said to me as I was finishing my degree, “Just in case your university education does not get you a job – let me send you on a touch-typing course, at least you will have that to fall back on.”

At some point I said to myself "you just wait – I will show you, I will be a 'success.'"

I have never thought that people took me seriously. It is as if my need to ‘prove’ myself has fueled my relentless pursuit to create a best work place, for growth and for being "world-famous" for what we do. To show all those people that said to me “you can’t” – that in fact I can.

After leaving corporate life, I became a marketing consultant, and even in doing that somehow my clients would look at the marketing plans I created... and pick and choose which elements they would do – as if it was a shopping list. I thought as an ‘expensive’ consultant surely I would be listened to. Still no.

As a start-up, I put into practice at RedBalloon the things that I had been advising my clients to do. I wondered if I could build a brand based on listening to customers and responding. If having a work place that people loved to be at, was to also to create a highly profitable business. Somehow I still needed to "show them." (Whoever "them" is).

Even now when I hear business leaders say “oh it is easy for you, you only have a team of 60”, I want to stamp my feet. "No!" I yell inside. "When will I be taken seriously?" Then I am inspired to do more, work harder – to prove that it is possible.

And I am equally inspired by other people’s stories of creating the possible from the impossible.

If I hear a story of someone who has overcome the odds, worked hard, focused, fulfilled on his or her word – and has been relentless in changing the world to make it a better place – I feel unbelievably inspired and uplifted.

My motto is “if it is meant to be, it is up to me” – but to change the world, first it takes a dream... these words have always inspired me:

To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

The Impossible Dream by Musical "Man of La Mancha"
Lyrics by Joe Darion

When the impossible becomes possible, the world is a better space.

(Thanks to my father for the touch-typing – it takes me more time to choose the headline and the picture for my posts than it does to type. Picture: my Dad and I, in my last year of university. He was always challenging me... and he still does)

Photo: Naomi Simson

Naomi Simson is the founding director of Australian online tech success story RedBalloon. She has written more than 800 blog posts at NaomiSimson.com, is a professional speaker, author of Live what you Love (pre-order now) and now TV personality on Channel 10’s Shark Tank (airing January 2015). Get to know her further on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.