You’ve heard the story of the tortoise and the hare? In the past, I’ve always been the hare. I’d get excited about something I’d read, and dive in. The smell of burning rubber hung in the air as I hurled myself into a furious, frantic frenzy of activity. The problem was, as soon as my momentum petered out, I had nothing left. I’d quit with nothing to show for it.
Eventually, a wise man (my husband) pointed out that it’s never as easy as the books say, and if I wanted to pursue something new, great, but I had to do my homework. I had to ask hard questions of lots of people, including myself. That is when I began to learn the wisdom of the tortoise.
The tortoise plods along, with patience and persistence, passing each milestone in turn, without rushing, without panicking, without stopping. When the idea first came to me to start this business, I was at a complete loss. I had never started a business or worked anywhere except corporate America. I was the anti-entrepreneur. And there were a lot of new skills I needed, skills I had never even contemplated acquiring. It was very intimidating. I had no reason to believe I could do it. I only knew I had a very strong feeling that it needed to be done, and that I ought to try to do it.
So I did.
I started to do research on the Internet. I started checking books out from the library. I began talking to people. I began (shudder) networking. When I started, I knew nothing about anything, but I kept on reading and talking and listening. Slowly, ploddingly, I have learned many many new things. I have also found many wonderful (human) resources along the way. (My thanks to all of you – you are a gift and a treasure to me!)
One resource I found available to anyone in the United States is an organization called SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives). It is a volunteer agency within the Small Business Administration. They offer free counseling services to anyone wanting to start a business. They have given me a much needed reality check, helped me write a business plan, and given me a lot of encouragement along the way. Writing a business plan is not for the feint of heart! It’s a long, drawn out process requiring much patience, and if you’re wise, much help.
Throughout this journey, I have learned the importance of not rushing things. If it’s a good idea today, it will be a good idea tomorrow. If it is God’s Will that I do this thing, then it will happen. All I have to do is keep moving forward, keep exerting effort, keep identifying the next thing that could/should be done, and doing it. If I get stalled on one front, then I start chipping away at a different front. All things happen in God’s time, not ours, so we must patiently wait for Him to bring to us that which we need. And we must be detached enough to recognize it when it appears.
(Of course, if it is not God’s Will that I do this thing, then I don’t want to do it anyway, and I trust that He will block the way forward, pushing me in a different direction.)
Life in general is so much more pleasant as a tortoise. I’m more relaxed and forgiving with everyone, particularly my children. The truth is, patience comes more easily when you realize there is no need to rush.
If nothing else comes of this venture, I am grateful for what I have already gained from it. Thank goodness I’ve discovered the joys of being a tortoise!
