It's The Worst Way To Fail
And has nothing to do with external factors
But has everything to do with you and your mindset…

As many of you know, I started working full-time again this fall
Full transparency, it has not been easy for me to make the transition
From 2018-2022 I worked from home, 3 years full-time and 1 year freelance
Which meant going to the office (3 days a week) was difficult to adjust and adapt to
That said, I joined the company for reason and believed in what we were doing
I also realized that my timing for going out alone was a bit pre-mature
There were only 5 companies in Portugal commercializing
And one of them was my previous employer
Another was my current employer
I didn’t have many options
I thought I failed…
New Opportunities
No, I didn’t go bankrupt
In fact, I didn’t even go into my savings
For 12 months, I made more than I was spending
That in itself was a win, but I had to do it a different way
By working with clients that were not part of my desired target market
I did some writing for a consulting firm, and advised a cannabis tech company
Both services being things I did not plan on offering as a cannabis advisor
That said, they were both things that brought in revenue and paid bills
Without them, I would have had to go back to being an employee
Not by choice either, it would have been forced upon me
Assuming I didn’t want to move back to Michigan
And live in my parents’ basement again
Which was not an option fam
So, I took the clients…
Blindsided
You never see it coming
But that’s how it’s meant to be
Or it wouldn’t have the impact you want…
Unfortunately, it shows up whenever the hell it wants
For me, it didn’t show up until I started creating content every day
Most times in the form or written posts on LinkedIn and my personal blog
Yeah, the one you are reading right now that doesn’t talk about cannabis much
Why?
Because when I started writing, I naturally had other things to talk about
One of the main ones being my personal development journey
Something I started 5 years ago after leaving the states
But I didn’t know what to do with this new info
It had nothing to do with my advising
And wasn’t a service of mine
I was confused…
Know Your Worth
I totally missed this
And had zero self-awareness
Wondering through life as a puppet of sorts
Believing that my work defined me and made me, me
And that I had to be one dimensional with no ability to explore
But then I had a crazy idea…
I thought, why can’t I do both? Why can’t I work in the industry I love
But also build my own community online and share my stories and knowledge
This would then allow me to keep writing about the topics that I enjoy
While having a great opportunity within the cannabis industry
So, that’s exactly what I decided to do with a prospect
One I was not able to land as a client of mine
But who offered me a full-time position
The result?
I found a middle ground…
The Lesson
Failure is subjective
And we beat ourselves up a lot
Did my advising business go amazingly well?...
No, it didn’t. I failed at some things, but also succeeded in others
And I learned a hell of a lot about what I was capable of as an individual
In fact, it was definitely a top 5 breakthrough experience for me in my life thus far
Now, I’m no longer afraid of going out on my own again and failing miserably
If I looked at my business as a total failure, then I probably would be
But it wasn’t a total failure at all, even if I told myself it was
Just because I decided to “go back to work” again
I was focusing on all the wrong things
Instead of on what I created
Which was the best
Of both…