Dear GirlBoss,
You amaze me! We’ve met before, you and I–at that networking event or online group or introduced by mutual friends or eying organic produce critically somewhere around town. You look so put together and fun and carefree. You’re all ages in one and hundreds of life experiences all rolled together into your chosen LifeWork.
You’re working from home, from your new downtown office, from coffee shops, from that cool co-working space, from another country even! You’re punching a clock AND running a side hustle (or two), you’re a fledgling solopreneur, you’re an economic leader employing a workforce of women. You’re raising children and caring for others full time but still manage to make your work a priority. You’re ambitious and giving. Focused and forgiving. Learning and sharing. Only your closest friends know that you went to Goodwill last night to get an outfit for that interview or the hoops you jumped through to qualify for that business loan. You wanted to shout from the rooftop that day you single-handedly worked your magic and negotiated your first 6 figure contract–but instead posted #blessed. Your #fierce resourcefulness and skillfulness overshadowed by pre-programmed worries . . . too little? too much? too soon? too late?
People talk (and you hear them). It’s nothing you haven’t heard before. It’s nothing that generations of women before you haven’t heard before. HA! It’s nothing you already don’t hear your own inner critic say 100x a day.
Your friends with regular jobs don’t understand why you can’t hang out or just get drinks. “Why do you have to work so much?”–weekdays, weekends, early hours and after hours. Depending on the nature of your work, it may even look like you’re playing when you’re working hardest.
What language would they understand? An Olympic athlete surely doesn’t have to justify her “obsessive commitment” to work toward that winner’s podium. If you’re eccentric enough or artistic enough, you may get a pass from the burden of status-quo social norms. If only THEY realized that you are that athlete-in-training and an artist, a mad scientist and a mad-man era marketing guru. You’re a teacher, healer and coach. You’re an inventor, innovator, and all-around creator. You’re a wordsmith, a pioneer, a craftsman, a welder. A photographer, designer, electrician, entertainer, engineer. A master chef, lawyer, accountant, farmer, trainer, realtor. An architect, a network-marketer, a studio owner.
Often All In One Day.
You. Are. Amazing. You take my breath away with mirrored possibility.
You still wonder why people can’t understand your drive and share your vision or your values. You used to worry about this more but now you know not all family or friends are “your people”. You used to spend so much time and energy trying to help other women SEE . . .
If they truly understood the stakes and the statistics, they might understand, you thought. But you learned that even understanding is passive.
There’s no part-way for the individual committed to the Hero’s journey #GirlBoss quest. There’s no part-time hobby business for a woman committed to bring her whole vulnerable self and kickass skillset to the world in exchange for monetary compensation and upper limit visibility. You’re motivation and mode of operation may look or be different from your sister business owners,
but you cannot hide
your driving passion
to succeed,
to break old money stories,
to heal generational wounds and
to model new ways of collective economic empowerment.
When complimented, you say It’s no big deal but big deal it is.
And here’s the truth–when I see you, I see myself–and the future of financial freedom for women and girls around the world.
With Gratitude & Love,
Terra
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