Today Oprah is announcing on her show that she’s ending The Oprah Winfrey Show in September 2011 after 25 years. It’s not like she’s retiring of course. Aside from her current media empire, she’s launching her own cable TV channel and will in all likelihood have a show on there.
I saw a great clip from an interview with her last night. It was from 24 years ago and she was asked “what if your new show fails?” Without missing a beat she replied, “I’ll be OK. I’m not defined by my TV show.”
Imagine if she had let the “what if I fail” question stand in her way back then, or at the many points since where she obviously took another risk to try something new? She certainly wouldn’t be one of the most respected or the richest woman on the planet!
This week during Ask Staging Diva Live, a 56 year old woman asked me the very same question. She said, “I love decorating homes to sell. I have a career I don’t like. But how can I switch now to have a home staging business, what if I fail?”
Indeed, what if?
What if she “fails” but has some fun and learns something about herself and what it’s like having her own business along the way?
What if she keeps her current job and tries home staging on the side?
What if after a few months she decides she doesn’t like it and stops, having already made back any money she spent on staging courses and getting her staging business going?
What if, she actually discovers she was born to stage homes? That it’s the most fun she’s had in years and she realizes she can actually make money at it, quits the job she hates and has the time of her life for the next 10 or 15 years?
My biggest “what if” fear is that I’ll get to the end of my life and realize I wasted it not being happy or not doing what I was meant to do. That’s what keeps me out here pushing myself in new directions, testing my talents in new ways, risking failure but going ahead anyways! Because to my mind, wasting your life would be pretty sad.
Have you ever been afraid to fail but moved forward anyway? Or are you stuck right now thinking “what if (fill in the blank)”. What if, what?
Please share your thoughts by adding your comments to this post.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Home Staging and Voice Of Possibility Group Inc.
Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love while helping others at the same time.
So true Debra. I left a well paying job as a lawyer in London to “escape” to the countryside in France. I’m now setting up my Home Staging and Redesign business here (In France it is “Le Home Staging” :-)) and have taken your inspiring course. I’m not having an easy time getting clients as Home Staging is an unfamiliar concept here, but I’m not giving up. If it doesn’t work here, we’ll just move to a more populated area! All the time, people are questioning my choices and telling me that I’ll regret it, but you can’t listen to that. You have to give it a try, otherwise you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.
Thanks Sophia for sharing your story! I know it will inspire others. As for “people continually questioning your choices and telling you you’ll regret it”, I’ve faced this many times in my own life. Especially when I was making the BEST decisions I’ve ever made.
People who are stuck playing small in their own lives don’t like to see others playing big, because it makes them question why they aren’t doing more themselves. So rather than cheer you on, they’ll try and hold you back.
Really will a true friend say, “you’ll regret that!” or should they be saying “you go girl!”
Women especially might notice this around weight issues. If you successfully lose weight your fatter friends (or your mother) will put temptation in front of you at every opportunity. Or they’ll suggest other things you can do with them instead when you’re about to go to the gym.
I left a 6 figure job 13 years ago in the fashion industry to follow my dream of owning a catering company. Was I scared? You bet but I did it. And guess what? After 2 years of doing that, I found I hated it. I then opened a fitness business and did that for 10 years. And NOW i’ve opened my home staging business. I’ve found that it’s important to work through ANY fear to move forward in life and learn to LOVE reinventing yourself! Life becomes so much more interesting when you do.
Angela, thanks for sharing your story! What a wealth of life experiences you’ve gained as you tried different businesses. You’re also proof that just because we choose a new path it doesn’t have to mean that we’re then stuck on that one for the rest of our lives. Every day we make choices about how to spend our time and saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else. We can do what we love for as long as we love it, and then move onto something else! After all, who of us is the same person we were 10 years ago?
The world is full of people, divided into two categories — yay sayers and nay sayers. The majority fall into the former. Finding members of the latter is slim pickins, definitely. That said, most nay sayers are just jealous of the yay sayers. Don’t let ’em sabotage ya, just go for it.
Oh Debra, you could have been writing this blog specifically for me! I am a 56-year old woman who has pined to stage and redesign for 6 years! One thing or another has kept me from doing it (fear of inadequacy, lack of support, lack of money…etc., etc., etc!)
When you said “My biggest “what if” fear is that I’ll get to the end of my life and realize I wasted it not being happy or not doing what I was meant to do.” I cried. That is me to a tee.
I believe finding your site and reading your blog was God’s answer to my prayers.
I am ordering your ebook “Ultimate Design Guide” and “Ultimate Color Guide” right now to get me going and I am expecting some money real soon so I can order your complete course. I have listened to your free webinar and already picked my name and registered it.
Thank you for sharing your expertise — you could have just kept it all to yourself and excelled as the “Staging Diva” expert without creating competition.
Char, thanks so much for writing and sharing your story! I’m really serious that my mission is to inspire and empower others to live their best life. That you have been moved to put aside your fears to stop pining and start doing, how wonderful!!!
Keep going, one step forward at a time and you’ll get there! We’re heading into a new decade, what a perfect time for a new mindset that will take you where you want to go!
The statement “you’ve just got to go for it” is so incredibly true! My part of the country has been hit hard with unemployment, my husband and I both worked for the same company and it closed unexpectedly.
We were literally knocked off our feet; thank God for the unemployment checks we were able to recieve, but that income was only 1/4 of our normal monthly incomes. We didn’t have insurance, we had too many bills and were worried we would loose our home.
My husband has been working now for almost 6 months after 1 year of unemployment, it has been so hard to actually understand the statement that there are 6 people for everyone 1 job available in our area!!
But I love homes (I go to open houses just for fun!) and decorating, and wanted to help people. I realized that if I could help a couple of friends also unemployed by providing a little bit of work (cleaning and painting) and help a realtor and homeowner make a sale, and stay out from behind a desk, which I’ve sat at for almost 20 years, I’d have found the perfect job for me~!
I decided to “just do it” and look what little bit of savings we had remaining and took a course in Staging, with Haverhill, unfortunatly I hadn’t found your company first, which I’m very upset about because I have nothing good to tell you about your competitor. I’ve learned more from the free articals and blogs you offer than from anything I’ve “bought” from them! And I will eventually be able to afford to take your course and will.
I’m starting my 3rd whole house staging project, we’ve been blessed with one job right after another and I’m growing this business and loving every second of it!
So, to those of you on the fence … I’d say take the plunge, you won’t be sorry. Just keep your mind open to learning and you will continue to grow!
Donna, I’m glad to see you’ve embraced just going for it, especially in very difficult circumstances. And I regret that you didn’t learn much from my competitor.
It’s so important for aspiring home stagers to research any training organization before sending them money. Just because a company spends a lot on TV advertising, doesn’t mean their program will necessarily meet your needs.
That said, I’m glad you’ve found Staging Diva and that you’ve found my blog posts and newsletters helpful.
I like to share free information to help raise awareness of best practices in this unregulated home staging industry. It’s also so that people can get a sense of who I am and what they can learn from me. My hope is that people trying to decide what program to take will ask themselves, “if she shares this much good stuff for free, is it reasonable to assume I’ll learn even more once I’m a paying student?”
Since you’re already in your staging business and getting some projects, I strongly suggest you take my course 2 “The Business of Home Staging” as soon as possible. It will explain how you should properly price for your services. When you apply what you’ll learn in that single course to your next project, you’ll earn more than enough to pay for the rest of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, not to mention the profits you’ll make for the rest of your career as a home stager!
I can relate to several people here about the money. It has taken me over 7 years to get out of debt and while I am free of bills, the savings has not built up yet. I took what little I had and purchased this course because I put so much research into it (and other programs) I felt it was worth the risk to take the chance. Decorating is what I have loved and done well all my life but I didn’t realize there might be a way to make money with my talents. So I chose the traditional “job” path, and yes, I felt all along “What if I don’t make it through Xray school?” It is a very technical profession exposing people to radiation for goodness sake! Now if I can learn that, surely I can learn how to do something I already love and have a natural ability for! And decorating/redesign/staging seems like it would even be so much easier….BECAUSE I love it, right? I keep filling my head with all these motivational speeches! But I feel like I am not alone here, like most of us are in the same boat just starting out! I wish we could fast forward a year or two and see how it all turns out!
Great comments Taylene. While you can’t fast forward a few years to see how it will all turn out, I can because I’ve had so many students over the years. I’ve watched them go from where you are now, with all the same fears and doubts right through to having awesome businesses. Many have also been featured on HGTV and in magazines and newspapers. Things they never could have imagined at the beginning.
Keep going, you’re moving in the right direction towards your natural talents and abilities, and doing work you love. What could be wrong about that? And you’re right, if you’ve been successful at something you weren’t passionate about, who knows where you can go when you’re actually doing something you love the best?