Business As Usual

When I say that there have been some recent changes in my life, it would be a massive understatement. In the last four months I moved from one house to another, moved my catering business fifty miles away, remodeled and opened a commercial kitchen, added on to my catering "empire" by opening a burger joint, taking on running the concessions for a local racetrack, started a fairly large garden project and CSA, and more than I care to list. Some days my head is spinning. Some days I wonder if I'm doing enough!

Before taking on the burger joint I had a moment of panic. I called a friend. "What if I fail?" I asked. "What if I lose it all?" You see, I've done that before. I've had it all. I've lost it all. I've been everywhere in the middle. My friend reassured me and I went on with my plans, closing the doubt out for the moment. This conversation with her really stuck with me. In it, she also shared some of her own doubts and I was grateful to have a companion in my struggle. This got me to thinking about the struggles that we each face in our businesses and in our personal lives and how unlikely that our friends even know that we're struggling. And then, a funny thing happened. I started to notice that a lot of my friends, who happen to be business owners as well, had that same smile that I had. You know the one, the "Oh dear God, I hope no one around me can tell I'm in absolute panic mode so I'll just smile through it" smile! At one recent event a few opened up to me about their struggles. The economy is tough. Business is tough. They're afraid, just like I was. They smile through it. They laugh through it. They'll get through it. Just like we all do. I was grateful to be a sounding board for them like my friend had been recently for me.