How to shrink or expand your life… and your business
Sophia Amoruso
Investing in winners at Trust Fund, NYT Bestselling Author, Serial Founder, Keynote Speaker. Returned the dress I wore on the cover of Forbes. ?? Pitch us at trustfund.vc ??
Ana?s Nin once said that "life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
Oof, courage.
If you tuned into last week's newsletter, you'd know that I have issues with it. I live in a lot of fear.
But you would also know that, sometimes, I'm also pretty courageous.
Case in point: I didn't realize how courageous it was?to call out one of Silicon Valley's top tech publications ?for their misogynistic and cruel mockery of me until I accidentally canceled them for a full 24 hours (and inspired paying subscribers to cancel their memberships). Oops! Sorry guys!
What came of that courage? More responses in my inbox sharing rage over the unfair treatment of female founders, thousands of strangers across my social channels showing up in support, and the beginning of a conversation about it all that is far overdue.
Today, I am grateful for yet another reminder of how being courageous can not only accomplish what you set out to do, but that the mere juju of courage itself puts a kind of pixie dust into the world that flings doors open to opportunities that you didn't even know existed.
Let me explain: my business is down this year. Everyone's online education businesses are. The world opened up, people are traveling, and the economy is at the top of our minds. Dropping $2k on a course that might inspire you to quit your job is a little scary right now. Or maybe I'm just a bad marketer.
That sucked. And then personally, things got kind of nuts. I live alone for the first time in a decade with a house that decided to start falling apart all at once, a new roof that's already leaking, and endless workers to schedule and supervise. I also have three tiny poodles whose butts poop at three different intervals.
A couple of months ago, this onslaught, along with the undertow of work that the Fall Business Class enrollment period had brought upon me, had me in tears feeling like I couldn't be successful with anything. That at any given time, something was falling apart, pooping, or just plain not getting done.
I needed help, but hiring when your business is shrinking is typically a really bad idea.
But it was either find someone to help me or allow my personal obligations take me away from what pays for those personal obligations.
Enter Tyler. Tyler is my incredible assistant that joined two months ago.
Since Tyler joined, three big opportunities have landed in my lap that came out of literally nowhere. My income has increased proportionately to the courage it took to bring him on. I'm still busy, not threatening a roofing company with lawsuits, but instead keeping up with the amount of work that's come in the door since he joined.
领英推荐
I attribute this largely to Tyler being an amazing assistant (don't you dare try to steal him from me!).
But I also attribute this expansion to the courage it took to make the scary decision to hire when many companies are planning layoffs.
So try it sometime: have the courage to ask for the help that you need, even when you know you're capable enough to do it all.
Have the courage to step away from your screaming inbox and exercise some self care, knowing that when you return you'll have 10x the energy you do now.
Make it a practice to place courageous bets that, while they may be counterintuitive now, can subsidize your opportunity to expand your life and your business.
Sophia
What I'm paying attention to:
My friend Sahil Bloom is a writer, investor, and entrepreneur who shares frameworks and tools that will help you work smarter, so you can build wealth without letting it consume your life. His 2x weekly newsletter?The Curiosity Chronicle ?has all of the insights to help you on your journey:
And with 125k+ subscribers reading it twice per week, it's clear that Sahil is onto something!?Sign up here to get free weekly insights!
What I'm listening to:
Francis The Great's?"Look up in the Sky" , a rare and unclassifiable avant-garde soul track with a seven-year-old singer. Produced in Paris in 1977 by his dad (surprise!), it features the best musicians of France and the Cameroonian diaspora and I can't get it out of my head.
ARTIST COACH & SPEAKER Curator & Creative Development Strategist - Sharing knowledge is ??
1 年This one was super helpful ?? thanks for sharing! X
?? Award-Winning MBA Admissions Consultant (EMBA, MiM, Masters) ?? Executive & Career Coach ?? Content Marketing Strategist ?? Helping aspiring professionals and top performers reach their full potential.
1 年Nice post #sophiaamoruso Here are a few thoughts from us to further inspire this conversation: https://lnkd.in/d_5Vj8Rb
Security Officer ?? Amazon
1 年I would like your help, Madam Subhiya, to find a job as a security guard in any company to provide treatment for my only daughter. Thank you
Security Officer ?? Amazon
1 年Greetings, sister Subhiya
aaaaaaaaaaa
2 年At the outset, I would like to say that there is no such thing as reducing life? As for work, this is something that is capable of it. First, life is not in your hands until you can reduce or shorten it, because life depends on time and time is capable of reducing it. For example, you have work that you estimate in an hour of time, you are able to accomplish? Half an hour and this requires courage, determination and speed. As for life, you cannot reduce it because it depends on your age and time, and these two cannot be decided or controlled by you.. Either work is subject to specific times, and every time has a price.? Courage cannot keep pace in all matters or times. There is a decision or fate or belongs to the person himself in determining it. It requires you to think, then conviction, and then courage in deciding it, and this requires you some time to think about it, decide and study it, and this also enters the phase of time and time and you cannot reduce it as life.? Because it is a fateful matter. As for time, it depends on you, or you allocate time for it to broadcast in ... and there is a lot of talk that we can talk about if you like discussing it.