I spoke at a women’s entrepreneur event this past summer and one of the things I had stressed was the importance of understanding how success comes in small steps. It stemmed in part from an interview I did earlier in the year. After an hour of talking, the reporter said, “Wow, I’m really surprised at how long and hard you worked, Patricia. You always assume when somebody has success, it was easy.” There is absolutely nothing easy. Any success, however you define success, is going to make you work harder than you could have ever imagined. Add in a start-up, and the to-do list can be enormous. This is why I constantly tell those I advise or mentor to create a list of their goals, a timeline for those goals and then, from there, the individual, small steps to get to each of them. Doing this makes the work easier, more digestable and less overwhelming. For example, maybe your dream is to own a digital media company. Start with a blog and start promoting it as part of that brand. As it grows, you can make the move to expand. If you want to be an actor, the first step is to get a decent digital headshot and start pitching yourself on gigs. This applies to the roll out of most business initiatives.
If I were to try to do everything I want to do at once, nothing would get done. I focus on the small things and so far, pretty much everything I’ve set my mind to has happened.
