Editor’s note: For our special Women in Business issue, we asked women in our local business community to share insights they’ve gained through their work in Western North Carolina. Here is one of those stories.
Wisdom — the ability to know what to do when. Running a business provides you with numerous opportunities to put how wise you are to the test. However, there are so many more opportunities when you become wise only after encountering situations where you realized you were not as knowledgeable or prepared as you could/should have been. These are the moments that start to tug on those wrinkles of insecurity and self-diagnosed “imposter syndrome” that we tend to carry. It is in those times that we must have our resilience arsenal stored up.
You see, what I found when I became an “official” businesswoman was that there are skill sets that one must already possess or immediately acquire that are not taught in a business class or program. Running a business demands that you have “life acumen.” I probably just made that phrase up, but I’m going to go with it, LOL.
In business, as in life, you will stumble and sometimes fall. It takes a high level of tenacity to keep going.
Believing in your vision and standing by it take courage.
Be confident in knowing what you know and humble enough to seek out the knowledge that you lack.
I am convinced that there is something in my genetic makeup that has me constantly “doing the most.” I wish I would have known early on that I am the greatest asset in my business and that I needed to invest in taking care of self. I’ve since learned that I can be resourceful but not always the resource.
Repeat after me, “No matter how invested I am in the success of my business, I cannot do all the things that will make it successful on my own!” A wise woman in business will build a support circle with an arsenal of resources.
— Brandy Mills
Co-owner of T.B.M. Smallcakes
Owner of B.L.G. Consulting
Founder of Woman Strong: A Movement
Asheville
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