Find people who are doing what you want to do and ask questions. Learn from them. Ask for advice. Soak it up. Learn from their mistakes. Learn from their successes. Do what they did to get where they got.
That is advice I’ve been offered again and again. And I listen. I make those contacts and soak up the advice. Sometimes what I learn is helpful and other times, it’s not. Recently I spoke with a woman who was referred to me through a headhunter who was trying to recruit me for a job. Through the process of getting to know me as a potential candidate for the job, he learned that I was interested in growing my LLC, writing a book and increasing the motivational speaking I engaged in. He was familiar with this woman who made a career out of speaking and training and had written a few books. So he connected us.
I am grateful that she took the time to speak with me. But wow. When I told her my history (mental health issues included), and how I want to motivate and inspire people to improve their place in life and improve their leadership skills, which is completely different from what she speaks about, this is what she told me. She told me that those topics aren’t special. She said every woman struggles with food and has an eating disorder. She told me that there are only three things people will pay someone to talk to them about and self-improvement is not one of them. She also told me not to tell people that I can inspire them because I didn’t have an experience like sawing off my own arm to escape death, for example. Those are inspiring stories. She said.
Initially she crushed me. Then I talked to a friend about it. And I wasn’t crushed for long. I was then mad. Very mad. How dare she tell me what I had to say doesn’t matter. She likely thinks she helped me by telling me how she became a speaker but in reality she helped me in a whole different way. She motivated me to work harder to speak and write on the topics that I am passionate about. That people respond to. And to never, ever, discount what another person has passion for.
She illustrated perfectly for me…NEVER give up on something you cannot go a day without thinking about. I won’t, and you shouldn’t either.