Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
Voices.
For most of my entrepreneur career and life, I’ve had the fortune and misfortune to learn from many mentors.
People who have their share of stories. Stories of them first fiddling around their businesses, experiencing minor victories, recovering from major setbacks, wonderful stories of success, emotional stories of betrayal, and many more.
Each story became a valuable experience. Each experience a life-changing lesson. Each lesson a learning point for better or for worse.
A constant reminder that has now entrenched itself and became a part of their very being.
Always calling out to them.
As a warning.
Or as a subconscious skill.
Voices.
Over the years I’ve had mentors who taught me many critical and important skills I now rely on. Both in my freelancing business and for my own personal growth.
As the years go by, many of these once loud and booming lessons have quieten down as other newer experiences took over.
It’s almost like being in a video game or a cartoon. Where as the protagonist levels up… a once critical skill loses its importance.
Yet, perhaps that’s how life is.
The rules of the game keep changing as your experiences keep on multiplying.
And after a while, what was once important, no longer is.
Just like how within the blink of an eye, a once important friend, no longer is.
They become a fragment of a memory that once was, but no longer is.
Voices.
Perhaps one of my greatest disappointment was following a mentor I thought and truly believed would be the solution.
The solution to my entrepreneurial journey.
The one who would pave and clear the way.
The answer I’ve been searching so long and hard for.
And to some extent, perhaps it was true.
For I held him in the highest regard. Frantically scribbling down every word he taught. Like they were gospel truth.
Allowing myself to take his criticism as constructive feedback for my own betterment.
Believing that I just didn’t have the right skill sets and needed to depend on him. That he held the answer.
Only… if he knew the answer, he certainly didn’t ever share them.
Sure, he taught the group of us. Sure, it seemed like he was the generous being he painted himself to be. Sure, he had great control and influence over us.
It was a pity then that he didn’t regard the rest of us as anyone important in his grand scheme of things.
In his own quest for happiness, he was willing to sacrifice the pawns on his chessboard.
So, engrossed was he in this game of his that he failed to understand the sentiments on the ground. Or maybe he never did care about them.
He painted a picture of a possible bright future. A future we could achieve together. As a team.
But he was never in the foreground. He wasn’t even at the back commanding or giving directions.
He was simply…
Nowhere to be seen!
Just another one of them.
Voices.
Those days are now long gone.
A misunderstanding led to a bitter disagreement. A tragic and drastic end.
If only they were willing to listen. If only they could step off their high horses for once…
…things might have been different.
Did I regret the way the story had unfolded itself?
I sure did.
Yet, perhaps if the events hadn’t played themselves out the way they did, I might not be where I am now.
I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I now find myself with.
I wouldn’t have the confidence to push myself and test my limits.
I wouldn’t have found the joy and happiness I’m now constantly surrounded with.
Knowing my own worth. Knowing there’s still much more for me to learn and improve. Knowing there are many more lessons in time to come.
But I don’t have to be afraid.
Not anymore.
Because deep within me. Deep within my very soul. I know they are always there.
Calling out to me. Reminding me. Guiding me.
With their…
Voices!
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