Too many home stagers hold themselves and their staging businesses back because they’re afraid to make a mistake. We want everything to be “perfect.” It’s a natural tendency— we don’t want to look foolish, make a mistake or disappoint someone.
But here’s the thing, if you’re not making mistakes in your home staging business, then you’re not moving forward! In this video, Derek Severs shares some great examples of why we need to allow ourselves to fail.
Personally, I think women suffer from “perfection-itis” even more than men. After all, we’re told from the youngest age to:
- Keep our things neat.
- Color inside the lines.
- Make sure our hair looks pretty and our clothes are clean and matching.
What does this have to do with building a successful home staging business?
Since I’ve been a home stager for 9 years and teaching others for nearly as long, I know that home staging appeals to perfectionists. After all, there are few jobs that reward you for obsessing over the precise location of a painting, the angle of a throw over the side of a chair, or how neatly the bathroom towels are hung. Being the perfectionist I am, I LOVE that!
Watching Picasso paint “Bullfight Horns Attack Matador” in this video was such a great example of how a “master” doesn’t get everything right the first time (and how our assumption that they do holds us back from even trying).
How about that surprising study of which group in the ceramics class made the best pots! Seriously, if you skipped past this video, take a few minutes and watch it. There are some real insights that will help you move forward as a home stager and grow your staging business.
We are all capable of so much more than we imagine.
If we always play it totally safe and don’t allow ourselves to fail we never find the outer limits of what we can do. I agree with Derek that “everything is an experiment.” Coasting through life gets incredibly boring after awhile. Are you bored yet? What new thing can you try to put you back in that “growth mindset”?
Has being afraid to fail held you back? Have you been comparing your “inside” to others’ “outside” only to always come up short and convince yourself that you’re not good enough to even try?
I really want to know if any of this strikes a chord with you, please share your thoughts below!
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989. Some ideas and businesses have worked out better than others, but each has brought “lessons” that made the next thing better. Debra knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.
Great video. Thanks for sharing. It was very encouraging…..
You’re welcome Peggy, glad you found it inspiring!
I encourage everyone to take 15 minutes and listen to the video on this post. Reminds me of my gymnastics training which proves the points he makes.
Athletes can train for years just to do a “perfect” 90 second routine. Not many get to see the work – the falls and mistakes – that go into the final performance.
It’s rarely our skill, but instead our mental demons that hold us back. Often, only you know how nervous you are, or how many times you’ve fallen prior to the competition. But you have to go out there and perform like you’re not nervous and you’ve never fallen. And, sometimes the routine will be perfect and sometimes it will not.
I’ve learned firsthand, through my teammates and personal experience that talent only counts for about 10% of success. Hard work, motivation, determination, dedication and consistency, are the other 90%.
As the saying goes, if you think you CAN, or you think you CAN’T, you are probably right.
Awesome Susan, thanks for sharing that example from your own gymnastic training!