Being honest is something I can never give up, it has cost me many relationships, both in my personal and business life, but I cannot be the person people think I am. I am the person I am and if people do not accept that, it is their choice. Once you know the real me you will be my ally, my friend, whatever you want to call it, for the rest of my life, and this is because it is meant to be.
In the early days of building my first small business, Motivational Steps I had no idea that some people would be judgmental about my honesty and treat me differently to other small business owners. Let me give you a few examples of what I shared in those early days and still share today:
I worked 3 low paid jobs: shoe store sales assistant, cleaner in a hotel, sold vacuums, and I did this in order to earn money to pay my bills so that myself and my 4 children could survive all the challenges we were going through.
I am a two time breast cancer survivor, proud to be alive to tell my story and help other people in any way I can.
I have never been to University or College. As a student in the UK I was not as motivated and inspired to do well at school. I worked as a secretary for an Insurance Company from the time I left school until I left to become a full time mommy.
I suffered from panic attacks many years ago in the UK and sought help from a hypnotherapist.
I almost lost my home in Canada because of debt, divorce, cancer, and other challenges. After years of working hard with the help of my 2nd husband the house was sold and we moved to a larger, happier home.
Evidently I was too honest in my early years of building a small business and people would look at me as a loser, who had moved to a new country, almost lost everything, was in debt, had no education, had been divorced, was an invalid due to cancer, and to cap it all, I probably had issues with my mental health because I had suffered panic attacks! I got very little help from those people, and I am happy about that. I believe like attracts like and the people who helped me along the way and still do and all the new people I come into contact with now all realized something even I had no idea about all those years ago:
I was a hard worker, even though the jobs were not the most enjoyable or well paid, I still offered the best I could. I gave 100% to each job and smiled, did what I was told, sometimes offered ideas on how to better customer service, or sales, or even marketing and did not walk away from the jobs, I am not a quitter.
Due to me being proactive and looking after my own health & wellness, I had sought help early whenever I suspected I had a challenge with my health. Being proactive meant I did survive my health challenges and could now help others do the same.
I returned to school to better my qualifications and realized the benefit of continuing education. Once again I was being proactive by helping myself and also offering a good example to others. My lack of University or College degrees did hold me back but I worked twice as hard knowing it is never too late.
Financial challenges and all the other challenges in my life had provided me with a skill set that enabled me to start two small businesses. My experiences had given me the tools I needed to help others, help myself, and move on to the success I have now.
My skill set includes, sales, marketing, customer service, relationships, mediation, motivational, networking, social media, writing, consulting - all gained through working for other organizations and knowing the challenges the employers were experiencing and also the employees. Whether those challenges were work or personal, I had experience in dealing with most of them, and this led me to a new career, a new life, owner of 2 small businesses.
Mentors, clients, connections, friends, and family all saw in me, in those early years and now, my desire to move on my dedication, my belief system, my motivation and my quest to continue to learn every step of the way. My ultimate goal was and still is to help others and help make the world a better place.
So when I asked the question, is honesty the best policy in business, I can answer no, not all the time. On the other hand if we are not honest and our skeletons do jump of that cupboard along the way will we lose more than we would have done if we shared our lives openly in the beginning of building our business? I truly recommend being proud of your life, challenges, skeletons, everything, have nothing to hide.
You will attract the people into your business life, and personal life who are meant to be there, the ones who are not open to your honest and transparency are not meant to be a part of your life, you can do without them.
Your thoughts, comments, tips are appreciated and I hope you like my honesty...
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