If fortune favors the brave, then be brave enough to rise back up.
I’ve helped many business owners over the years. I’ve done everything from mentoring new entrepreneurs to consulting with large corporations. What I’ve learned is that when we focus on relationship building and helping others… we succeed.
My passion to help others overcome fear, embrace failure, and achieve success started when I was 18 years old.
It all comes from a very personal place.
It was just me and my wonderful Mama for the first eleven years of my life. When she married my stepfather, life got a little easier and she had options. Mama decided to open her own furniture business when I was in high school.
Just like every entrepreneur out there, she poured her heart and soul into her business. The long-hours and physical labor never wore her down because the adrenaline rush from doing something she loved empowered her to keep going every. single. day.
Eventually… after a few poor financial decisions and a crashing economy… my mother closed her furniture store. It wasn’t long after that when the bank put a foreclosure sign in the lawn of our home. A few days after that… the bank repossessed my mother’s car.
I was 18 years old when I watched my mother experience the biggest heartbreak of her life. She lost everything that she had worked so very hard for. Believe it or not… I look back on that time and realize what a blessing it was to lose everything at such a young age. I learned more in those years of traumatic loss and heartbreak than I could ever write on this page. In fact, it prepared me for what would eventually happen fourteen years later.
You see… that traumatic experience changed my life trajectory. It gave me a new dream and meaning for life. I became the first person in my family to graduate college. My parents couldn’t lavish me with a nice dorm room or even help pay for my tuition, but I refused to give up on my new dream… so I worked a full-time job plus another part-time job while being a full-time college student.
I was not a traditional student. I never tried pot or cigarettes. I barely drank alcohol. I didn’t attend college parties. I focused on school and work. I became determined to succeed at life.
Redefining success.
Not long after graduating college, I realized that “success” in life didn’t mean having a lot of money. It meant having a healthy life with meaningful relationships. Money is necessary, but how much money we have doesn’t determine our success. In fact… success is really about the impact you make on the world.
Even with knowing this foundational truth at an early age, I wasn’t exempt from more of life’s trials. If anything – that knowledge made me more vulnerable to major pitfalls.
My story continues on with marrying my first real boyfriend, getting to know my real father, abandonment and rejection from my husband, a spiritual awakening, an affair, a divorce, rape, a “business partner” who stole everything, bankruptcy, a bunch of legal proceedings, and even a really long season of feeling lonely and worthless.
Hope.
As I write this, I’m 33 years old. Even after all the hardships… I still believe that there is hope for a bright future; that success is possible. My scars are not pretty, but I refuse to give up. I attribute the strength to a childhood of constantly overcoming and many supernatural interventions. Through it all – God has allowed me to envision the possibilities when everyone else sees the roadblocks.
I’m not sure what your story holds or what you’ve had to overcome, but here is something that I am 100% confident about: We can take all of the negative experiences and fear that is holding us back and turn them into tools to fulfill our purpose. That, my friend, is how we will go from “failing” to “fortune.”
I’m still in the process of overcoming and becoming. I don’t have all the answers for you. All I know is that I refuse for my past circumstances and mistakes to define my future. I encourage you to do the same. Also… tell that annoying little voice inside your head that you are worthy. You are enough. You are smart. You are beautiful. You are desirable. You are good. You are loved. And most importantly… you are strong enough to overcome it.
There are hundreds of female entrepreneur communities available to you, but I’m not sure how many of them would tell you this:
I didn’t create this community so that I could eventually sign you up as my client. I created this community so that WE could have an honest place to freely share our biggest dreams. A safe place to share the real struggles. A place to be loved and welcomed no matter what baggage we carry. A place where the women quickly forgive and extend grace. A place where women do more encouraging than they do gossiping.
Life is hard.
Entrepreneurship is hard.
Relationships are hard.
Staying healthy is hard.
So… I’m simply asking… Can we support one another on the journey? Because that is the real reason I created SOWBO.
Yours truly,
Amanda
