I ventured outside of my comfort zone. No, nothing wild happened. More like β eye-opening.
Since 2020, I work from home. My constant companions are my husband, our cats, and my friends online. You see, my scope of daily interactions is incredibly limited β I have the world at my fingertips that I've curated for myself.
Which means, it's somewhat narrow. To the extent that in my mind, whatever's obvious to me must be obvious to anyone else. Whatever I see as my goals and failures β well, everyone sees that, too.
Take a look: My husband is an entrepreneurial web developer who is active in online communities and runs a blog. My friends provide services online and create content. We're so different in our points of view, with experiences and backgrounds we bring, yet our aspirations and visions are so alike.
Back to my "out of the comfort zone" experience.
For the past two weeks, I met people offline. My husband's day work colleagues. New people who live in the town we've moved to. Close friends we haven't seen for two years.
(Exciting, isn't it? Also I might say, scary. But finally, we're meeting more people, yay!)
The conversation always finds its way into, "Hey, what do you do for a living?" (What a fascinating question. Really! We live but how exactly do we live and lead our lives?)
The way you answer usually depends on who's in front of you. And I thought, I had it all figured out (like when I thought about my husband's colleagues).
Turns out, it's a good conversation starter β to say that you're a fan of stories, you work with entrepreneurs who run their businesses online, on their own, and you're there to help them communicate their ideas and stories β but it's the replies that made me stop in my tracks.
"Wow, so you work with people all over the world? And you just connect over something you posted?"
"That must be interesting and fulfilling to write. My job's boring, plain numbers."
(For the record, I found the "plain numbers" job fascinating. To me, it's like your mind computes on another level, breaking dimensions. Take it from this eager international economics graduate who failed her investments & accounting course.)
Throughout the conversations, I heard curiosity and saw question marks. I heard their aspirations and doubts, too. For someone who works 9-5 in a start-up or in corporate, the other side β solo entrepreneurship β sounds wild.
Going online to find clients without sales background sounds wild.
Posting your thoughts to the void on Instagram sounds wild.
And for me? Well, I forgot just how wild this is. How beautiful it sometimes is. How happy it makes me. What fulfilment it brings me.
Every day I compare myself to other successful entrepreneurs. It doesn't bring me pleasure and I do my best to focus on myself β but it's a journey and it takes time to get out of it.
In these comparisons, I forget that there are so many people out there for whom the mere act of publishing or creating your own offer or figuring out an idea online is utterly uncommon. Even for myself a couple of years ago!
Perhaps, it's admirable to look up to someone bigger and better; but it's also soul-crushing to think that whatever you do, you're still not "there" like others.
Because no matter what action you take, you still forge your own path.
Yet, sometimes you need a teeny tiny poke in your bubble to look around and then see the full picture of where you truly are.
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