“Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

We all have so much going on in our lives that we often lose focus and become overwhelmed with "environmental factors" which can dull our sparkle and lead us to throwing our hands up in the air, giving up out of sheer desperation for sanity and silence from the mental noise.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston S. Churchill

What should I wear, who is going to fetch the kids, what can I cook tonight, How am I going to pay this/that bill, why haven’t I heard from them in forever, how am I going to provide for my child’s future, will I ever find someone to love, what do I really want to do with my life????? - Any of these sound familiar?

I would assume that we can all relate to at least one or two of these specific examples… beyond that we all probably have a few more of our own.

Any garden left unattended will run wild and eventually be FILLED with weeds, so weeding is ESSENTIAL! The mind is no different. You need to stay focused on where you want to be. You need to remind yourself of why you started and you need to remove the noise from your mind so that you are able to do this. You might fail in your endeavors a few times before you succeed (no matter what they are) but you must not give up - not if you are passionate about it. Persist, persist, persist!

I read a tweet a while ago from one of my biggest “business” mentor’s (excluding my dad of course…hehe) Now I know he is not everybody's favourite person lol, but let's keep this in context shall we ;)

“Entrepreneurs: See yourself as victorious. Look at the solution, not the problem”. – Donald Trump

This advice is applicable in ALL facets of our daily existence!!! Whether it is about putting a presentation together, dealing with a difficult teenager or work colleague, compiling a business plan or facing your relationship fears.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and am inspired by people who are self-motivated. I have been blessed to have been given a healthy balance of “character” as far as my parents are concerned… My father is my greatest mentor when it comes to business related matters, he is wiser than I could ever dream of being and without blinking an eyelid has solved the most complex problems in front of others whilst they remain dumb struck or defeat riddled..

I have introduced him in previous posts... but nonetheless... meet my dad :)

My mom is equally as wise but more so with matters of the family and heart. She unties the most complex emotional knots and manages to still stand up, smile and be gracious all at the same time. My mother has walked me through every single emotional facet of my life - She is my best friend. Always has been and always will be.

Also previously introduced... but once again... my beautiful mother :)

I count myself lucky in that my character appears to have developed into an “almost” equal 50/50 ratio of both of what my parents had to “give”. I am career orientated, determined, confident, stubborn and persistent but I am also caring, considerate, loving, empathetic and extremely sexy! – hahahaha!!! - Thanks mom and dad. Hehe!

Now you know where all the sexy comes from...hehehehe

17 years ago, I decided to give employers the middle finger (yes…literally – lol) and go work for myself. By trade I am a graphic designer, but I walked into the world of entrepreneurship with a concept that was actually the brain child of one of my brothers. I am not sure if there are similar products abroad (I would assume there are) - but I started out on my own selling advertising space on information fridge magnets.

My brain child brother that pushed me into the world of entrepreneurship - he will probably kill me for sharing this pic. lol

Essentially it is a fridge magnet that is geared to a specific suburb and will have six to eight emergency and frequently used services advertised on it - such as a Plumber, Electrician, Food delivery, Florist etc. I can see now how this worked well for my brother (haha) as he owns an electrical business. I would put the design together, sell the advertising space, produce the product and then have it distributed into the letterboxes of the relevant areas.

I was in my early twenties when I started this and it was damn good money. I worked about two days a week and life was good!

Time passed, circumstance changed and when meeting my now ex husband - he clearly saw dollar signs in me, so everything grew. He left his job, we expanded the business, got premises, started employing people and all the while he was bleeding us dry for his own personal gain which eventually all fell apart several years later. We were forced to liquidate and lost everything. Had to move back into my flat which I bought independently when I was about 20 years old. (I lost that too eventually, sadly... as I was foolish enough to get married in community of property). There is nothing quite like the sheriff of the court coming to collect all your possessions to give you a little bit of perspective in life...

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.” ― Tupac Shakur,

It was a very turbulent time in my life, but at the advice of my dad - I got up and decided to do it again. We looked for premises and opened our doors again - 11 years have passed now and although business can be VERY tough at times here in South Africa, we are still VERY much standing.

The advice my dad gave me, was a story about a board room meeting that he had attended. Around a table of approx. ten to fifteen well established business men, they sat and discussed their stories of failure and how those lessons had well prepared them for the success that they now enjoyed. In essence, my dads words to me were -

Every successful person I know, has failed AT LEAST once in their life.

I never forgot that.

I very nearly lost the second business when I got divorced as I was pretty much ready to simply walk away from it for fear of facing the seemingly impossible because of my emotional state of mind.

But I didn't!

I have made MANY mistakes, I have learnt MUCH, I have FAILED and I have SUCCEEDED – although – as an entrepreneur in South Africa, I think I have simply SUCCEEDED. Hahahaha! (Yeah…. It is BRUTAL!)

I am de-railing….lol
​
The point I am trying to get to is that I come across entrepreneurs every single day of my life. Some established, some not. Some motivated, some not. At the end of the day, I have noticed that a good 90% of people give up on their “entrepreneurial dreams” – and dreams in general!!! - When in truth, they haven’t actually given themselves or their dreams, half a chance!

People start out enthusiastic and they give it “their all” – but then things become complicated, they lose their footing – and along with that, their enthusiasm / passion. They start stressing about bills, suppliers, kids, bonds, electricity and a mountain of other things - and then more often than not, begin waving their white flag.

I am not going to lie or pretend that I am immune from these stresses… but the reality is, you are where you are! And yes! You put yourself there! – So STOP. BREATHE. And look for a solution! There is ALWAYS a solution! Take each aspect of the problem and break it down. Write it down, think about it – and then let it go. Let your focus diffuse and then let the ideas start rolling! At a moment when you least expect it, you will find your solution or at the very least, the foundation of it… and from there you can work.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day” – uhuh! – When I was 18, naive and incredibly arrogant (ok, I am still arrogant - lol), I wanted to leave (my last) job, and one of my customers overheard me talking… his advice to me was “if you want hard work – work for yourself” - Needless to say, I laughed him off..

NEVER WERE TRUER WORDS SPOKEN!! - But! (And it’s a big but) – The rewards far outweigh the toils.

My Point?

STRESSED?

Get up with the intent of solving your problem. Be proactive in that manner. Be constructive.

Bloody hell, if you can’t think of a way to be constructive about solving your problem then GOOGLE it… I can assure you – your problem is DEFINITELY not as unique as you would like to believe it is and there is bound to be some advice for you “out there”…

DESPONDENT ABOUT YOUR DREAM/GOAL?

If you can see it, if you can feel it and if it gets you jumping out of bed, excited to “plan” it – then DO IT.

But remember, EVERYTHING takes time. You cannot expect to put one good sweat session in and walk out looking like a Victoria’s Secret model… NO, you need to…

let me think about how to put this to you…..

You need to…

• BEND OVER BACKWARDS, EVERY TIME!
• WORK YOUR ASS OFF ALL THE TIME. EVERY DAY & EVERY NIGHT!
• FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!
• TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF SO YOU CAN RE-FUEL AND REPLENISH
• REMIND YOURSELF WHERE YOU WANT TO BE AND WHY YOU STARTED

THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES! AND THERE ARE NO EXCUSES!

The “hard” way… is the REAL way (and yes this rule applies to just about everything! Lol) – but much like the rewards of entrepreneurial independence, the rewards of your efforts towards anything in life are always tenfold.

The secret is however, to do everything with a positive energy. Be grateful for EVERY single challenge (pleasing or not) and always keep the end desire / result / goal in your mind’s eye. Do not allow yourself to be blindsided by the chaos in your life. Do not allow it to drain your enthusiasm and passion.

Oh…

And NEVER. GIVE. UP. - EVERRRRRRRR!!!!!! :)

Everything you persist through….. Shall pass. The universe has an uncanny way of rewarding those that push through their trials and tribulations. I suppose it has a lot to do with the strength of character shown. Efforts in any sphere are rewarded in some form or another.

Awesome concept really, isn’t it ;)

“Don't ever give up. Don't ever give in. Don't ever stop trying. Don't ever sell out. And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, whisper a prayer, and start where you left off. But never, ever, ever give up.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Eena, The Tempter's Snare

There are so many people here on Steemit that KEEP ME GOING - Keep me motivated and keep me focused and I would just like to say thank you to each and every one of you!

@anneke
@enginewitty
@fitinfun
@gaber
@giantbear
@gringalicious
@jacquelyne
@jerrybanfield
@john-gpr
@michaeldavid
@papa-pepper
@pkvlogs
@progressivechef
@rushikesh23
@shlimmm
@sweetsssj
@tattoodjay
@thedamus

Until next time...

Much love from Cape Town, South Africa xxx