Carissa Daniel

3 Critical Life Lessons You Can Learn as an Entrepreneur

“Everyone is a teacher, everything is a lesson.” Unknown

Your business can be one of your greatest teachers and the challenges you inevitably face, while growing and building a legacy that profoundly impacts your customers and clients, can be an immense opportunity for your personal growth and development.

For those of us who are currently in business or who have had a taste of business, we can all testify to the ups, downs, ins and outs and the roller coaster ride our businesses take us on during the different phases of its growth. 

The growth and development of your business is very similar to the growth and development of a human being, flowering and flourishing over time, however, not without the situations that will challenge you to be better and to mature, if you allow yourself the opportunity and privilege to do so. 

The truth is, without challenges, there is no growth, there is no development. If everything was always perfect and flowed as we think it should, then, more than likely, we will remain stagnant and growth will be impossible. 

Challenging and ‘difficult’ situations help us to step outside of our comfort zone and into a space that will help us to continuously be the best versions of ourselves.

During my several incarnations of businesses over the years, I have experienced hardship, frustration, disappointment and failure. While admittedly painful at the time, these experiences were true gifts, offered to teach me invaluable, pertinent life lessons, resulting in a better, more aware and conscious human being.

Life Lesson No. 1: Acceptance - “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Robert Burns. Often times, we have a very clear vision and plan of how things are supposed to flow in our business. We lay it out perfectly in our Business Plan, we create a masterpiece Strategic Plan and we action diligently. However, more often than not, our reality does not match our mind’s vision and our natural reaction to such situations is to become frustrated and stressed. 

A more sustainable and effective course of action is acceptance. I could see your eyes opening up wide, while reading this, wondering if I am crazy to even suggest this. 

What is acceptance anyway? It means that you recognize and surrender to the fact that the situation you are currently faced with, has happened and you cannot change the fact that it has happened. Non-acceptance is the root cause of all of our perceived problems. 

Now, this does not mean that no action will taken but instead, it means that if any action should be taken, it will not be negatively emotionally charged, which is what non-acceptance creates and your judgement will be clear enough to move forward in a strategic way.

In addition to this, we fail to take into consideration that possibly another, better door is being opened, why the one you are trying to enter seems impenetrable. However, when we resist what is happening, we become closed to the possibilities of any other way showing itself to us. 

That’s why accepting, letting go and surrendering is such an effective practice especially for the recovering control freaks like myself.

Life Lesson No. 2: Unconditional Love- “To love unconditionally, we have to be willing to get nothing from love except the joy of loving.”- Gina Lake. During the early stages of our business, 99.9% of the times it feels like we are in a one-sided relationship, giving, giving, giving and receiving nothing in return. 

It’s during these phases, however, we determine just how much we love our business because at that time the only reward is the joy of investing time and resources into a young, growing business.

A very long time ago my father told me that my business will test me to determine just how much I really wanted it and believe you me, it has and continues to. This simply proves to me that this is my passion, my purpose and heartbeat and while I know the mass reward is inevitable I am yet to see it manifest.

So too with your business, it will help to teach you unconditional love for something that is yet to give you anything in return except for the joy of growing it and seeing it eventually flourish.

Life Lesson No. 3: Compassion and Understanding-"Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.” Dalai Lama. The objective of our business is to serve the needs of others. You need people and people need you. This means therefore that we must engage with others such as clients, customers, team members, vendors and other stakeholders. 

I’m sure we will all agree that working with others isn't always a walk in the park, due to our differences in our perspectives, opinions, frameworks and beliefs that shape the way we view the world and interact with it.

In spite of such challenges, human interactions often present a beautiful opportunity for growth. If we choose to embrace each encounter as a teacher and a lesson worth learning, we eventually harness compassion, understanding and love for one another.

We grow to appreciate each other's differences and the mindfulness that we are all at various stages in our development. As a result our interactions become easier and experiences are more pleasant. 

How we experience any situation in life and by extension our business is wholly and solely based on what lens we choose to look through. Your business can be a series of adventures, where you truly never know what's on the other side of the mountain but your openness to learn and fully engage in that experience will ensure the lessons you were meant to learn will be received and embraced.