Nobody gets it all

All you have to do is clear your own path. (Image by congerdesign)

Working with fellow business owners, I see patterns arise in the concerns and insecurities we share.

It is common for these leaders, be they entrepreneurs or freelancers, to believe that they aren’t real business owners for one reason or another.

Their website still needs work. Their social media accounts are placeholders. They haven’t figured out how to file their quarterly taxes. They’re just winging it when it comes to sales.

My message for them — and for you, if you can relate — is that having a business is about having a paying customer. That’s all it takes. The rest is a work in progress, and will always be a work in progress. The more you do, the more you see that you could be doing. It never ends.

Nobody gets it all perfect. Some parts, you’ll be better at than others. You can hire people who are good at the stuff you’re not as good at, or you do it all yourself. It’s up to you, and there is no right or wrong answer except for what you decide it is, based on what you want your business to be.

Of course, there’s always the chance that you’ll run afoul of some regulation or law, but don’t expect to get all of that right, either. As Alanis Morrissette so sagely put it, “you live, you learn.”

One summer, when I had been in business for a decade, I was visiting my family when I got a call. “A lady is here from the state and she says our summer camp is illegal.”

It turned out that my entire business was illegal. Apparently, any organization serving children in Georgia has to register with the state. If you work with kids in any capacity without their parents present, you have to have an exemption saying that you are not a day care. This functions as a de facto license for non-day-care programs for kids. The whole thing was weird and confusing to me, but correcting the problem was a matter of filling out the correct paperwork (something I am terrible at, by the way). Out of necessity, it got done.

Here’s the thing: There is no way I could have known about this ahead of time. When I first moved to Georgia, I started out by teaching music lessons in people’s homes, in my own home, and as a contractor at two local schools. I knew enough to get a business license with the city, but that was it. There was no checklist to follow, no one to say, “Oh, by the way, you also need to get in touch with this state agency.” I spent ten years in blissful ignorance of these state requirements even as I took care of zoning, insurance, worker’s comp, taxes, and a whole bunch of other things that are well out of my comfort zone.

No matter how many things I tried to anticipate and get ahead of, there was always more. I didn’t give up — that would be irresponsible. I just decided I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it or worry about it. The only way to discover the law, apparently, was to break it.

This has been true in many other areas, too. I’ve made so many mistakes with sales, marketing, finances, operations, employee management — the list goes on. I’ve sought mentorship, counsel, and practical assistance in order to speed up the learning process, but I still don’t get it all. Maybe some people do, and good for them. But I’m not even close.

Listen, Mick Jagger is one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation, but he doesn’t play lead guitar. He leaves that to Keith and Ronnie. Meryl Streep focuses on acting, not directing. We don’t all have to be good at everything. And when it comes to business — and many other pursuits in life — there are so many different facets that there’s bound to be something that isn’t perfectly in your wheelhouse. It doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you.

Nobody gets it all, all of the time. The best we can is to keep learning, keep growing, and keep being compassionate with ourselves and others when we fall short. We can rely on the wisdom and knowledge of others to bolster our own, but learning how to do that is a skill in itself. Wherever you are, whatever you can do — it’s okay. You’ll figure it out.

And if you don’t, maybe you’ll get lucky and no one will notice.