Since I was 12, I have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. I babysat at 12 and then became an Avon representative. By 13, I was in the top 20 in the district for sales. I loved the idea of working for myself and being able to control how successful I was.
Since then, I’ve dabbled here and there with working for myself and am finally able to really take the plunge, at 41. It is a private choice, with no drum rolls or pats on the back. There are exciting steps, such as getting a website started, and tedious steps, such as loading each product. There is fear of failure and maybe of success too. At the same time, it is wonderful to finally be trying to do what you want to do, something that interests you when you wake up in the morning, every morning.
It takes patience to start a business, tending to it like one tends to a garden. You can’t hurry the results, just like you can’t force a plant to grow. You can nurture it regularly to keep it healthy and hope to see results. It is better to try to do one wants and not make any excuses, rather than always have your dreams on a back burner to do “someday.” For me, it meant “if not at middle age, then when?” I have to finally at least go in the direction of my interests and see what happens.