Where I am now … the Entrepreneur’s 2nd Year Journey

Laser Launch blog party is a collection of stories from online celebrities about their second year experiences.

Brought to you by: Laser Launch Package – a double whammy of expertise to get your next launch sold-out because your second year should be fun + profitable.

I thought that when I hit my second year of freedom from working for “The Man” that I’d be in the mood to celebrate.

Flashback to January of 2012 when I found Danielle LaPorte’s Spark Kit and had an epiphany: that even a soulful, mystical mama like myself could be a successful entrepreneur. This was a “both/and” proposition: I could have success AND soul. Could I have it all?

Now it’s January of 2014. What I’ve been through over the course of two years has opened my eyes to what it means to be an entrepreneur from a much deeper place than just the freedom, making big money or having a big Twitter following.

Becoming an entrepreneur is more than a career path, it’s a call to adventure. Like Santiago’s journey in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it’s a new world of exciting paths leading to your hidden treasure. At the same time it’s akin to a frightening leap of faith over the abyss of death, like that undertaken by Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade.

But the rush! Hell yeah! If you’re an adrenaline junkie like me, step into it. Jump into the abyss my friend.

After you’ve made the leap and heeded the call to adventure, it’s time to find the mentor and team up with allies to help you stay the path.

Got Mentor?

It’s both frustrating and exhilirating. No matter if you follow all of the rules, make all of the “right” marketing moves, make friends in high places and stay consistent with your newsletter, there are still no guarantees that you will sell out a workshop or all of the spots in your coaching schedule.

Your mentors and entrepreneurial friends will keep you from loneliness and remind you that you need to ask for feedback and help OFTEN.

Got Balls of Steel?

At some point while brainstorming yet another product or service that you know will sell like hot cakes this time, you look at your savings balance: $0. And your checking account balance: $12.

The shit hits the fan and you realize where you are. Definitely not in Kansas anymore!

You feel lost in some kind of Alice Through the Looking Glass Crazy Town of your own making. You get out the smelling salts and begin to figure out how to get money in the door.

For some unknown reason, that Great Universal being, maybe Oz himself, decides to send you enough clients, workshop registrations and/or product sales to keep you following the Yellow Brick Road.

And, you have gained the wisdom that there’s no place like home. Click your ruby clad heels together three times … the mists of time swirl around you … open your eyes and you’re standing at the gates to the entrance of Hades. The journey home never happens without first traversing the Underworld.

Got even Bigger Balls?

That’s where I am right now.

As hard as it is to keep perspective around the archetypal Death aspect of life itself, I’ve learned that the monsters lurking in the deep waters of river Styx are not there to kill you, just to remind you of what a fucking courageous warrior you are. And, no matter how scary they feel and look they too are an integral part of the initiation.

They break you down. Turn you into a liquid mess of vulnerability. You become the shit that fertilizes your own garden of abundant creativity.

Also in the Underlands, we meet the shades, spirits and ancestors who can tell us how to return HOME again. When Odysseus needs to know how to return to Ithaca, Circe, the sorceress of course, tells him to sail to the end of the world, find the gates to the underworld and offer up a blood sacrifice to Tiresias. In his life, Tiresias was the blind prophet from Thebes who was turned into a woman for seven years. It is through facing death, and taking directions from an old blind clairvoyant transvestite, that we find our way back to the light world.

And ultimately, Home.

Still want to be an entrepreneur?

Because you know that the unpaved highway to your entrepreneurial dreams is one that will lead back to your greatest, richest resource.

Yourself.

In parting, I can promise you a few things.

You’ll never be bored.

You’ll never be wanting for adventure.

You’ll always be grateful you took the time to jump out of the rat race and honor your true calling.