Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Standing on Shoulders

OK, this is something I struggle with: asking for help. I am too independent for my own good. And I realize that this problem is fairly common with women entrepreneurs. We tend to think that we CAN do it all (which who am I kidding...of COURSE we can!) and we think that we SHOULD do it all (which we all know is ridiculous.) But it's what we do...or am I the only one with this struggle?

I'm starting to get a little bit better at asking for help, but it's not easy. Here's the thing: I only have so much time in my day. So why am I beating myself up to accomplish tasks that I don't HAVE to do? Is this profitable?

And what about the people that actually are the ones doing the helping? I know that the biggest reason I hate to reach out to them is that I don't want to inconvenience anyone. I don't want to ever be THAT girl. You know, the one that people inwardly groan when they see her coming? The one that has people avoiding her phone calls? Yeah...THAT girl. Secretly, this is one of my biggest fears (OK...not so secret now that I've advertised it to all of cyberspace.)

This is on my mind because today I got past myself and actually reached out to someone to ask them a favor. I'm not sure if she was happy to help, or if she was rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone. But I did it anyway. And she did help out, and accomplished something in about 15 minutes that would've taken me all day (not to mention the cost to purchase the PhotoShop software required for this particular task.) And I am truly grateful. Today, I stood on her shoulders for a brief part of my journey to success.

Until Next Time,

Jacki

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