Luck, determination, hard work

Posted by on Jan 24, 2012 in Business Talks | 9 comments

Yesterday afternoon, while knitting away on one sleeve of my Secret Project (TM), my buddy @CarrieKeplinger RT’d the following…..

RT @papernstitch: Is it just easier for us to identify our successes as luck as opposed to the results of hard work and dedication?…

Hands up if that sounds like you, small business owner, who thinks every success is a luck of the draw.

Yeah me too.

 

It’s no secret I doubt myself. The comments, emails, tweets and FB messages I get from customers indicate I shouldn’t, yet I have a hard time seeing that.

 

I put hours, days, weeks into a product. I deserve the money I make, whether directly linked to a contract where you know you will get paid a certain amount, or linked to the self-published side of the business – where I put the hours for free, expecting sales at the end.

 

I often wonder if my point of view regarding my successes is directly linked to being a woman. Woah Ruth what are you, in the 1920′s? No. Seriously, look around. Most freelance men seem quite at ease understanding the key equation hard work = success than a woman.Note the word, SEEM. That’s not to say they don’t have a hard time seeing it sometimes, but in my experience they appear more secure in the thought that their hard work will lead them to professional achievements.

 

Maybe I’m wrong and it’s actually tied to the fact that I have a hard time seeing my achievements, coming from a background where MORE is always required, MORE is always what you aim for and what you have NOW is just not enough. A healthy dose of low self-esteem in my school years could also play a key part in this little movie of mine.

 

In order to stop myself doubting my successes and having a tough time seeing what I’ve achieved, I’ve set up a new system.

 

 

In a previous life, people have considered me messy, and I’ll admit it… I was. I probably could have had better grades if I’d been more consistent with my non-existant system of tracking things down. So this year may be the end of all that (after 30 years of being messy. I’m a late bloomer)

 

At the end of the day, the studio has to be tidy. There’s no way I can start work if my area is messy and I know it, in previous jobs I’d make a point of being tidy just to annoy everyone (it shows off how messy they are). Now there’s no one to annoy except myself and boy do I annoy myself. So, I clean the desk (now there’s only one garment on it that needs some ends woven in and some button placement to do). I clean the sofa where I knit (even puff up the pillows!). I tidy away my tools.

 

And I write down my achievements on my Filofax. There’s things I will always do – like clean my inbox. More of that on another episode. Or put caps on all pens – it makes me sad if they dry out. Those things don’t go on the lists. But I write down, like yesterday “Emailed these many people (list), blogged Y, thoughts for future blog posts (insert here), one sleeve down”.

 

Every day I can see I took a step towards my success.

 

If this garment is a success, it’ll be because I took the time and effort to make it a success.

 

If my blog readership this month has topped (in 22 days) any previous month’s readership, it’s because I’ve taken the time to write for you.

 

If my business is a success, it’s not because of luck.

 

I never rolled the dice, so it’s not luck.

 

It’s determination, and working fingers to the bone – which makes me happy.

 

I discovered my path and chose to take it.

 

Instead of silencing the voices, I followed them.

 

Follow yours and don’t let anyone tell you “you’re lucky” – you’re only lucky in the sense that you figured out what your life was supposed to be. The rest is all hard work.

 

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  • http://www.rachelerin.com/ Rachelerin

    I like your idea of writing down each day’s accomplishments. I don’t design full time, so it is often easy to feel that I NEVER get anything done – which is not true. A little daily note would help remind me what I did make time to do.

  • CambriaW

    very inspiring :)  I stepped up quite a bit from past years, but I know there’s always more room to grow professionally.  The first step is to be able to refer to myself as a designer, and be comfortable with that.  At least you’ve got that one down ;)

  • http://twitter.com/gr33ndaygal Sam Parfitt

    Thanks Ruth, for putting into words how I want to see my working day. The daily note idea is wonderful, I shall implement it. :)

  • http://twitter.com/ThePurlyQueen Cheryl Anderson

    Hi Ruth, this is so true! I’ve realised when anything goes well, I always think it’s because people are nice and kind rather than it being anything I’ve actually done myself. I read about the “Imposter Syndrome” the other day where basically we always think that at any moment we are about to be caught out for not being good/clever/talented enough and that we’ve just been winging it for years and it seems to be something that women suffer from more than men.
    Thanks for the inspiration for getting organised and being determined!x

    • Anonymous

      WOW so THAT’s what it’s called! Imposter Syndrome. I now have a name for how I feel every day! Funny how close to home this post and these comments have hit, yet very encouraging to hear other people’s feedback and ideas for helping to combat it.

      Why is it so hard to remind ourselves that we are where we are based on merit? A truly strange question.

  • http://twitter.com/alishairish Ali Irish

    I know you don’t need me to tell you that of course it’s all your hard work and determination and talent, but I will tell you that your attitude is inspiring, and that when we find something that we love, we can’t hide it and people know that it is genuine.

    I think when that love for what we do is clear, the doors open for us. It’s still not luck: it’s hard work to keep doing what you love at the expense of other things! :)

  • http://www.byannieclaire.com/ Annie

    I’m so glad that this was thing I read when I turned on my computer this morning. I have a day of the ‘ugh’ work – the work that you know you HAVE to do, and really don’t want to. You’ve motivated me! Thank you

  • Diane Mulholland

    I like that you have your end-of-day tidying routine. I think this is so important when you work from home to separate the workday from the evening – because this gives the workday itself more value, it’s not just ‘that knitting hobby’, it’s a job with finite boundaries.

    And I love that you write things down. I’ve been tossing around a plan for a similar thing to keep track of the work I put in in certain areas – remember I talked about it once? I am going to get that going once I’m home again next week!

    x 

  • http://www.oiyi.blogspot.com/ Angela

    A great post, Ruth. I have a hard time distinguishing my accomplishments as either luck or hard work. But I always try to remember luck will only get you so far. Like you, I have a lot of self-doubt.