Betrayal, it can hit you like a load of bricks falling from the
sky, leaving you with a pit in your stomach that no pill can
cure.
Starting your own business is hard enough, however when your
inside people are working against you as well, it can make the
toughest of souls weak at the knees.
Let me take you back a few years, and share a little story with
you.
There I was, a fledgling in the corporate world, I had just quit
my (steady) job and sold everything I had to venture out into
entrepreneur life, when “it never could happen to me” happened.
My closest friend and business partner wiped out our bank account
balance, leaving me with debt up to my eyeballs, and a lesson to
be learned.
I come from one of those attitudes that believe that everything
happens for a reason, so what could this reason be, I pondered?
It was tough; let me tell you - faced with the biggest crossroad
of my life.
A failing business with no cash to save me, a close friend’s
betrayal, and two roads leading into separate directions.
One, go after the person who did me wrong, obviously having a
slam dunk case and would win in any court. Or two, use that same
precious time and energy to focus in a more positive manner on
rebuilding what I once had, and learn from the experience, if
nothing else, what I would never tolerate again.
What would you do?
For myself, I chose the second of the two, knowing darned well,
that by wasting my thoughts and energy on ways to get back at
this person, and how I could make them suffer as I, there would
be little left to focus on what really mattered most:
- - > Creating the business model and dream that I had began
in the first place.
What made me take this route, you ask?
There is an old saying that goes ‘many receive good advice, yet
few actually profit from it.‘
Since I chose to succeed, I went back and listened to all my old
motivational tapes, thumbed through the books, and messages, got
my focus back and quickly realized that we are all dealt
obstacles in this world.
I mean, there will always be stumbling blocks in our lives,
that’s just part of life itself.
It’s our “Attitude” toward these events that show the world who
we are as a person.
For, it’s been said: we learn more about someone on one bad day,
than on all their good days put together.
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to always have drama
in their lives, while others simply go with the flow? Or why one
group of people are happy and content most the time, while some
seem to only attract anger and chaos into their lives?
I believe it’s because what we feel and how we see ourselves on
the inside is the direct reflection on how we feel and see the
world around us.
Someone once said to me, “we can’t control our circumstances all
the time, but we can control our attitude toward them.” A true
statement I know, but come on - I was stuck in a tight spot here.
So, there I was - with a BIG decision to make and decided to take
on this challenge as just that.
A challenge.
I figured, if I could overcome this situation that seemed so
grave at the time, and not only make it through it, but actually
grew from it, perhaps, maybe - just maybe my business partner
didn’t fail me after all.
Here’s what I did.
I moved on and buried the past. I went into the office the next
day, changed the locks on the door, rolled up my sleeves and
never looked back.
It’s amazing what a new coat of paint can do to a dreary old
room, and that’s what I did for my business and attitude toward
it. Out with the old, and in with the new.
When I called all my customers and explained what had happened,
you wouldn’t believe the response. It was like a brotherhood of
business people. Each person I spoke with having more advice that
the last. It was strange how I felt all-alone, and ashamed for
letting someone take advantage of me, while others saw me as a
new start up, and simply green behind the ears. Remember, we all
make mistakes.
There were many lessons learned that month, and I took the advice
given to me by these people, by hiring the best accounting person
I could find, and then one of the best of Tax firms to oversee
their numbers as well.
By doing so, guess what happened?
My business rose to the highest of dimensions, allowing me to set
my sights on growth rather than setbacks, and on the future
rather than the past.
That was many, many years ago. The company became a corporation,
and eventually the corporation was sold to another.
Now I find myself here, writing this story as if it were
yesterday, remembering one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned.
In life - things will happen, both for the good and the bad. It’s
the way we handle these situations that make us who we are.
It’s all right to feel anger; it’s OK to sense pain, but in the
end, when the story is written, which path will you have chosen?
Live in the past, or live FOR the future.
Best wishes, and what ever you do...
Keep Smilin'
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