April 2018: Redefining Wealth

Half Story Mountain - Grayson Cox

Entrepreneurship is synonymous with money issues.

Whether you’re raising money, investing money, borrowing money, calculating cashflow, stressing sales, creating contracts, or balancing balance sheets, the bottom line is a constant source of stress, energy, and everything in between.

In my first business, consulting startups on marketing strategy, revenue varied wildly by workload. I had $2,000 months and $20,000 months and probably even a $200 month in there somewhere. Eventually, I learned to ride the waves, using the flush times to work hard and save, and the lean times to travel and produce content like my books and webseries.

My latest project, the Pregame Clubhouse, is a whole other ball game. For the first time, I have a lease and employees. For the first time in almost a decade, I am an employee! As someone who is in many ways quite risk-averse, the challenge of revving up revenue has been enormously stressful. I’ve considered fleeing to Tanzania more than once — usually at the end of the month once the numbers are in and the rent is near due.

Climbing out of my most recent bout of startup anxiety, I knew I had to shift my focus around money. Instead of having an anxiety attack every time I lost a client or feeling validated every time I made a sale, I had to find a way to separate my identity from my account balance.

Shortage mentality creates stress and I certainly don’t need more of that. So I decided, instead, to focus on the areas of my life where I am gloriously, abundantly, embarrassingly wealthy.

I may not have unlimited financial resources, but I do have great fortune in both quantity and quality of relationships; in creativity, intelligence, experience, strategy, and style.

It worked. It worked fast. Within weeks, I stopped feeling stressed about my business and my life and seeing blessings and benefits everywhere.

Though my cynical side hates to admit it, once I started focusing on my wealth, especially the richness and value in my “people portfolio,” I started feeling secure and satisfied.  Past performance is, in this case, indicative of future results.

Where does your wealth lie? In which areas of life and work are you wildly rich? This month, I invite you to discover and revel in your personal, totally unique, always available portfolio of wealth.

Strategy & Style,
Ciara


Artwork by Grayson Cox: “The Half Story Mountain”, 2013, Digitally fabricated fiberglass, 96” at base and 72” tall. This is a project that was completed on Sept. 27, 2013 for the Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO. Featuring: Le Corbusier’s LC4 Chaise Longue for a single visitor to recline upon.

1 thought on “April 2018: Redefining Wealth”

  1. love it! thank you, ciara! you’re a mind reader….retuning the focus on wealth of support and wisdom all around me.
    is that the brooklyn bridge 😉
    mer

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