Help Yourself to Success

Hello everyone,

The last month has been crazy at Realize Beauty with meetings, R&D, trouble shooting, teaching and inspiration hunts taking all of our waking hours and eating into our sleep.  So it is with that in mind (plus a schedule that is still beating our door down) that I, Amanda sit and write this to you, my beauty queens, green dreams, wannabe’s and look-and-see’s.  This is about you and me.

I meet, talk to and do business with a wide range of people from all over the world and that’s why I do what I do.  My personal mission is and has always been driven by an intense fascination with people, their life journeys and more specifically the part that creativity and business play out along the way.   I think that’s why I always return from my travels and meetings enthused yet confused and re-energised yet exhausted in equal proportions.  But I like that.

So along the way I learn a little about us  and what I learn most is that success is something that you help yourself to.

But this is where we have to sit back and be adults about that, not children.  The child in us would reach for the book ‘The Secret’ and devour it, make a pinterest board of everything that we want to manifest and then sit back and wait for someone to ‘show me the money’.  The adult would get a pen and paper or go for a long walk or take themselves off to a quiet corner and get to know themselves better.  The adult would know that success means knowing who you are and who you are not. What you want and what you are prepared to do to get it AND what you are willing to accept as a consequence of those actions.

And while I love the enthusiasm of the child it is dangerous to let the child part of you or anyone else run or plan your business. I know this because I’ve done it.  It hurts and for a long time.

So, quite often when I meet people as a chemist they expect me to draw chemical diagrams, make things sound confusing and technical and suck air while telling them that ‘I can do it but it is going to be very complicated and very, very expensive’.  I don’t.

As with anything in life once you know what you want, how you will use that new thing or skill and how you will get others to connect with it a fairy lit path appears to lead you to the detail. There are no longer any dark and unknown spots for the ‘devil in the detail’ to hide.  That is as long as you keep walking the path with your eyes open and give yourself adequate time and provisions to take the journey.  Things that I often find lacking.   As such,  a significant part of my consulting life is spent facilitating those conversations and contemplation sessions in order to ‘find and frame what the adult wants’  so that I, as part of that adult journey, can fill in my part of the puzzle and meet the clients real objectives.

A surprising and interesting consequence of this process is that the child that has thus far been hatching magnificent but un-attainable plans is suddenly given the space and tools to go wild.  Rather than be squashed out of the process the child now has their own room, their own adventure playground, their own time and space in which to go wild.  Meanwhile the adult can watch, learn and take what they need from this process to develop their kick ass products.  It’s a real win-win.

The only time I struggle with the opposite problem – all adult, no child – is when approached by a venture capitalist of financially motivated entrepreneur.  Then we have to flip it on its head and coax the child out of hiding.  Without the child the project has no soul, life or personality. That is equally tragic.

So what am I telling you to do?  You people sitting out there looking for, dreaming of and wishing to taste success?

It is simple,  find the time and space to get to know yourself and explore and evaluate your dreams.  BMA grads might call that a business plan but I think that comes next,  your ‘getting to know me’ is first priority.

It doesn’t matter that you have done this before, today is different, you have grown, learned, been burned or whatever.  Do it again.

And one other thing, there is never a time when there is not enough time to think.

Thinking is always a good idea, as is tea.

So I will leave you with that thought and go put the kettle on because I’ve got another humdinger of a working weekend to get saddled up for.

With love and dreams for your success

Amanda x