Fashion Business Owner Musings: Putting Others on Pedestals

startup fashion business owner musings

I have a tendency to come upon impressive people doing incredible things and automatically situate them in my mind as other-worldy….as if they could do no wrong.

By this I mean that every piece of advice they give, every idea they put out there, every direction they take is something that I “need” to pay attention to; something I need to make sure I learn from.  I’m not sure why I put certain people on a pedestal but I do.

Actually, that’s not true. I know why I do it. I do it because of my own insecurities. I do it because I sometimes doubt myself. I do it because I don’t always have the confidence to believe that I’m capable.

Sound familiar at all?

It always amazes me how easy it is for us to see how impressive and capable other people are but when it comes to ourselves, we always seem to have doubt.

Recently one of these people (a female entrepreneur I’ve been following for a long time) sent an email to her list saying something that I totally disagreed with.  Not that one of us is right or wrong, we just think differently on a topic. And I realized that my initial instinct was to doubt my point of view.

Why?!

Because…”she must know better than I do.”

I really started to reflect on how I elevate certain business owners in a way that, frankly, they don’t deserve. None of us deserves that because we’re all trying and failing and learning and succeeding.

I started to realize my own tendency to believe that others deserve more of my attention and belief than I do; and how problematic that is.

Do you do this?

Do you allow yourself to doubt your direction, your decisions, and your confidence simply because that person seems to be in a place much further along than you are?

Do you let yourself get into a bit of a frenzy because you’re not able to keep up with this person or be “as good” as this person or know as much as this person?

I do this more than I like to admit. But I’m trying to stop.

So let’s try to learn how better to trust ourselves and our decisions. Let’s try to tap into our confidence and use that to guide us as we navigate a path that at times feels completely hectic, scary, and uncertain. Okay?

Lots of love and encouragement,

-Nicole
Nicole Giordano

Nicole is the founder of StartUp FASHION, an online resource and community supporting for independent designers around the world with building their businesses. A deep love for the craft of fashion paired with an adamant belief that success is defined by the individual, led her to found StartUp FASHION, where she helps independent designers and makers screw the traditional fashion business rules, create their own paths, and build businesses they truly love. More than anything else, she’s in the business of encouragement and works every day to remind makers and designers that they have something special to offer the world and that they can, in fact, do this thing!