No Longer Hiding

"One man with courage makes a majority"

-Andrew Jackson

The imposter syndrome taunts us at every stage. We clench the breath of our potential tightly within our lungs.

You are no longer hiding when you fully enter this stage. One of the tests that we often have to face as entrepreneurs in this great bold battle is we have to market ourselves. We have to promote ourselves. We have to be willing to not hide, not hide how gifted we are, how wonderful our products and services are, and what we truly have to offer the world.

In this battle, the entrepreneurial warrior steps right into the throes of battle and faces the fears that are deep within. Here she is exposed but she is gaining momentum, confidence, and courage. She wants to give it her all. To show up in the spirit of being naked and unashamed.

The taste of success is on your tongue. Business is working out, sales are happening, progress is your friend. Providence smiles upon the warrior in this stage. During this battle the entrepreneur starts seeing how great they can be. And to the depths of our being, you and I both want to be as great as we are meant to be.

Yet as this surge of confidence swells, resistance taunts us, discourages us and tempts us to hide and to not show up fully in other ways as now we don’t want to jeopardize the success and momentum we are tasting. This is that internal battle that we face over and over and over and over again. Are you willing to not hide and to not play small no matter the circumstance?

This is the core fundamental test over and over and over again as we create our enterprises, as we create our products is we create our services and the more we hide, the more we diminish what we could have been and who we could have shown up as we diminish our impact would diminish who we were meant.

If I’m really frank with you, this is one of my hardest inner battles. I know I’m meant to be an absolute badass as an entrepreneur, a business architect, and a mentor. But I am sometimes lulled into the steady safety of vanilla flavored blandness with my storytelling at times, with how I show up in social media, and how I coach my top clients.

I’m a afraid to embarrass myself. To embarrass my wife, my mentors, and my family. Yet, it’s ironic, I’ve had no hesitation to do so many other businesses and to embarrass myself at times with those succeeding or failing.

So I feed myself. One of my inspirational entrepreneurial heroes Richard Branson, loves to do crazy stunts even though he’s really an introvert. He’s bold as marketer, stunt man, and entrepreneur. I crave more of that in my life. By the time you read this book, I will have grown in this area. Because I know something.

There’s no time to lose.

I cannot afford to play small. It hurts others when I hide as I rob them of the fullness of the gift I can offer to the world. Each day I linger in the shadows of timidity is a day that I diminish my good.

Let’s read my favorite poem together.

Our Deepest Fear?, By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.?

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.?

It is our light, not our darkness?

That most frightens us

We ask ourselves?

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous??

Actually, who are you not to be??

You are a child of God.

Your playing small?

Does not serve the world.?

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking?

So that other people won't feel insecure around you

We are all meant to shine

?As children do.?

We were born to make manifest?

The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;?

It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,?

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.?

As we're liberated from our own fear,?

Our presence automatically liberates others.

I’ve memorized this poem for a reason.

I need it to seep deep within my being. I’m not fully there yet. I want to be playing all out in life without playing small. My heart wants to manifest the glory of God that is within me so I can help liberate others to do the same.

(Hope you enjoyed this short little chapter from my book I've been working on the last few months)...