When you start something and I mean really start something, it is scary. When all the talk, the procrastination and excuses run out and the action starts, that is when you are gripped by the fear!
The fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, or worst of all, the fear of letting yourself and family down and not being able to support them. The amount of importance we put on other people’s perception is often what holds us back. We play safe and build for the future to protect our families by climbing the career ladder to support our loved ones, which is what I did for years, but now I was faced with the ultimate dilemma.
To search for another safe and secure job in the most difficult of times or to harness this fear as motivation? To use it as the drive to get up every morning. With the support of those around me I felt it was time to make the agonising jump from the day job to launching my very own distillery!
For me this moment happened in November 2020. After being furloughed like so many others during the Covid-19 pandemic, my company decided to make changes and I was made redundant.
Now this was not the first time in my life I have made redundant, but this time it felt different.
For most of my career I have worked in the hospitality sector working and selling into bars restaurants and hotels, the sector most effected by the pandemic. It was where I was most comfortable, the most at home I have been which meant I was successful in my chosen career. But now things were different. The pandemic had changed everything.
My choices were clear. I could either try look for and find an ever increasingly hard to find job role, up against many other excellent candidates, or to take the biggest leap I have taken in my life – to go it along and start my own business.
No matter how many wise proverbs you tell yourself, no matter how many mantras you know, the only thing that matters is to believe in what you are doing and to believe in yourself. It was time to change my mindset. In stead of being nervous, it is now the time to get excited.
Even if you fail, that is ok, its about no matter how hard you get hit, it’s about getting back up and moving forwards.
To have the strength to know that failure is a possibility but you still continue on your journey gives you the upmost power and liberation to follow you deepest ambitions. I would rather fail at something I have always to do than face the failure of never trying.
So I hope you will join my adventure and journey into the unknown.