Caring about what others think of us is natural. And caring what others think of your fashion business, is not surprising. You want people to like what you’re creating. I get that.
Caring a little is OK. But the problem arises when we let how much we care about what other people think, stop us from doing what feels right to us in our businesses.
When we allow ourselves to be held back for fear of what other people’s opinions are, we’re not reaching our full potential and we’re missing out on a lot of possibilities.
While this point applies to life in general, right now I’m talking specifically about how we succeed in our businesses.
Most new business owners are navigating this journey with a faulty compass, working like crazy to build the life and business you want for yourselves. And because there is not one way to build a business, you’re often second guessing your decisions and allowing yourselves to listen a little too much to the feedback, advice, and “constructive criticism” of others.
This can present itself in so many different ways.
- not trying new marketing ideas for fear of them flopping.
- redesigning collections because someone thinks it’s not perfect.
- making decisions about the direction and growth of your business because of feedback from someone whose MBA automatically makes them an “expert.”
- not launching a business at all because some people in your life “don’t get it.”
- not asking for the sale for fear of looking “salesy”
I once listened to a podcast with Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, where she talked about the early days of starting her business. She talked about how she had no idea what she was doing, how people doubted her, how people didn’t get the product, how she would run around department stores re-merchandising her product to better position it for sales, and so much more.
Everything she said, I found myself saying in my head, “Wow.” Because no matter how much other people thought she would fail, no matter how much other people thought her idea was a stinker, no matter how much people thought her techniques were wacky and “wouldn’t scale”, she didn’t stop.
She didn’t let her possibility of success disappear.
She didn’t let what other people thought of her, her idea, or her methods keep her from going after her goals.
And you shouldn’t either.
There are always going to be a lot of things that pop up in our businesses that could seem silly or desperate or like “bad ideas”. And some of them may be. But it’s our right as business owners to find that out for ourselves, to try what feels right to us. If it flops, so be it. We’ll learn and move on.
But what if it succeeds?
What if everything you’ve been working so hard for is just right there within arms reach; just past that belief that what other people think matters more than what we believe to be right for our own businesses?
Imagine that.
Keep it in your mind the next time you find yourself listening just a little too much to others’ opinions, the next time you “feel stupid” about trying something in your business that might not work, the next time you’re ready to give up on an idea simply because someone else doesn’t like it.
If you can do that, if you can catch yourself when you’re giving others permission to stifle your success, I promise you that you’ll start to see the progress in your business that you’re wanting so badly. Opportunities will open up for you and goals will be reached.
Lots of love and encouragement,
