Ok, so the number one topic for discussion last week was definitely staying in your own lane. Not in the sense of excluding other options, but in the sense of being true to yourself, not to someone else’s image of you.
This came up with a CEO of a startup, who is negotiating another round of funding. As well as with a CEO of a startup, who is building both her company’s and her own brand. Not to mention the CEO/owner who is negotiating the sale of his company.
Each of them were battling with the same problem. Staying true to themselves in the process. Not bending over backwards to please the investors or clients or potential buyers. Not making themselves, or their companies, smaller or somehow different than they really are.
If there’s a need to pretend, it’s always going to end in a disaster. Nothing sustainable has ever been build on a lie.
Who you are is enough. What you do is enough. Even when someone says it should be somehow different.
There’s no need to try to make yourself somehow smaller or less than in order to please others. There’s no need to try be someone else than you are in order to be successful.
You get to be you. And you get to be successful.
It’s not an either-or situation. You don’t have to choose only one of them. You get to be and have both!
Questions to reflect upon:
- Where have you been stopping yourself from being you?
- How can you be yourself in that situation?
- What do you need for that to happen?
Those ‘take it or leave it’ -moments, where you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable situation, are especially the ones, when you definitely want to be honest and open.
Now, honest and open doesn’t mean the same thing as being naive or boundless.
When you build on honesty and openness, then you build on a solid ground. Thus, the vulnerable position you put yourself into by being honest and open may come with high dividends.
Of course, the flip side is, that you may get rejected. And it may feel uncomfortable. Yet, even in this situation, you’re blessed. Then, there obviously is a better match for you somewhere else. Whether it’s about the right investors, clients or buyers.
The set back is always a set up for a come back.
If you’re on a situation, that you need to figure out what’s the next best move forward, let’s connect!
Much love,
Paula
xx