Every day, you’ll have opportunities to take chances and to work outside your safety net. Sure, it’s a lot easier to stay in your comfort zone…in my case, business suits and real estate…but sometimes you have to take risks. When the risks pay off, that’s when you reap the biggest rewards. ~ Donald Trump
I was reading Steven Miller’s tale of being an accidental entrepreneur when I realized, you know, I’m here quite by accident as well. Heck, for the past 8 or so years I’ve been on this whole accidental entrepreneur path. But as the ancient Greek statesman, Demosthenes says, “small opportunities are the beginning of great enterprises.”
Now I can’t speak for all accidental entrepreneurs as I’m sure that everyone has a different story, but for me, I just kind of fell into my businesses. For some, it came about at the hands of downsizing, getting laid off or getting fired. For others, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I guess I’m a little mix of both.
I now have two businesses under my belt. The first one, Constant Chatter, a blog and online community for women, is a great example of being in the right place at the right time. I never set out to start a community and I certainly didn’t set out to be a writer (or in this case, a blogger). But I followed my gut and was amazed at what it turned into; a great resource to a great many women.
Thankfully, once Constant Chatter developed some legs of it’s own, I was able to move on to my next business. I took my teaching and therapy background along with what I learned while running Constant Chatter and started working as business coach and consultant and teaching workshops. I guess the ancient Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu when he said that “opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
While I’d consider both of my businesses to be successful, I’m sure from the outside or from a big business standpoint, they don’t appear to be quite so successful. I think success, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. If my businesses allow me to do what I want to do with my time and my funds, than that makes for a successful business model on my part. Back in June I was lucky enough to interview Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears, the authors of The Boss of You (you can read my June interview with them here). I love what they have to say about success; “In order to be successful, you need to know what success means to you.”
So whether you’re an entrepreneur because you set out to be one, or you’re an entrepreneur because you just kind of fell into it, embrace it. Henry Ford once said that “failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” And hopefully, you’ll do begin again, and have much more fun and far greater successes than you’d otherwise have imagined!
