Soaring
Madeleine MacRae
Helping 2+ businesses in every major US market hit $10M in (profitable!) annual sales. Transforming 10,000 businesses by 2030. Reshaping the success conversation.
Over the past few months, it has felt as though my life went from relentless effort: working and working, planning and building, trusting and adjusting – from tilling the soil and removing all of the rocks, from selecting the seeds and carefully planting them, from diligently finding the weeds and ripping them up from the roots, from watering and waiting – to reaping.
In an instant.
In one huge leap that felt like just the easy, natural next step.
I went from plodding and persisting to soaring in a moment that’s now unfolding over the course of months.
There were so many days and weeks and months (heck, I’ll even say there was a year or two in there) over the past 8+ years of owning my own business where I worried and wondered if I was three feet from gold or if I was mining in the wrong hills altogether.?
I have had doubts and trials.
I have had slow periods and rushing wins.
It has been the typical, terrifying, exhilarating, agonizing, aggravating, gratifying, heart-filling, intense growth adventure of the entrepreneur.? Unique in its iteration, but surprisingly predictable.?
When you’re in a moment of doubt, when it seems that things aren’t coming together (or at least not fast enough), it’s so easy to be tempted to throw in the towel.? It’s so tempting, in fact, that most businesses don’t make it to their 5th year anniversary.? But those early years of effort and of error when things feel low or slow or unsuccessful, THOSE are the very moments when the pieces are being built.
You can’t go from an idea to success in one bound.??
Well, you can, but it’s so rare and atypical that planning on being an overnight success is the kind of strategy that leaves you many years in and feeling ready to throw in the towel.
I used to hate the low-and-slow growth path.??
Yuck.
Incremental movement felt like quicksand beneath my feet.
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But, now, 20 years into my career and in my 9th year of business, I recognize that all of those years of growth – sometimes fast and fun (the way I like it) and sometimes slow and scary (the way I hate it!) were necessary.? I was gathering resources that I would need for this next stage of the journey.? Resources of all types: some were spiritual, some were emotional, some were intellectual, some were experiential, some were practical and tactical.? All were necessary.??
Profoundly necessary.
And, in looking back, I can see what it’s taken to live out the adage of being an overnight success 20 years in the making.
How about you??
What are you working on?? What are you building?
Are you still plodding or are you feeling ready to leap?? Are you peering over the edge or soaring?
If you’re feeling like you’re ready to grow and to get to the place you’ve always dreamt of being, let’s talk!? I would love to help you get there.?
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Design Principal at Masterworks Window Fashions & Design, LLC ; Designer of the Year 2024, Grace Awards at the International Window Coverings Expo. Color Harmonies for Your Home; Artistry at Your Windows.
9 个月Jim Rohn used to talk about the Law of Sowing and Reaping. You have to do the hard work of sowing in order to harvest the results. And what you sow today, you don't see the results of immediately, but you do have consequences to those efforts, good or bad, steady or inconsistent. One business coach I had said you don't see the results of what you have done until 3 months down the road. He was right, but sometimes, the results are even longer to be seen. I recently had a client call me, who had picked up my postcard from a referral partner 8 years ago. I had learned that business cards and post cards with your photo on them were more likely to be retained. And she had indeed saved my postcard for a long time, only recently calling me, meeting with me, and placing an order for two rooms of custom window treatments. My referral partner has retired, and no longer has a showroom, but placing those postcards with him all those years ago paid off this year.
Steward of family legacy. Portraits that connect generations and tell your family’s story. Working with families, UHNW and multigenerational families in business. Mixed media oil paintings. International locations.
9 个月So glad to hear you say all that! I'm building a new phase of my business and it's almost like starting all over again. Takes a lot of soil-tilling and rock-moving!