Parvati Magazine | Page 30

BUSINESS LEAD LIKE A LION Not A Mouse T he thing about business is that you are always tested about knowing yourself, knowing your own inherent value, learning to not take things personally, to see our set backs and even our failures as opportunities. Many people who start their own business put their value on external factors, such as seeking validation in the form of other people’s praise. Putting one’s own sense of value in another person’s hands is essentially giving away our own potency; it’s the difference between acting like a mouse and acting like a lion. A business cannot run when being led by a mouse. It needs a lion heart to truly be successful. For example, I have a friend that started a cranial healing practice. This person spent a lot of time getting accredited and put an equal amount of time into making a sales presentation program. This person then proceeded to build a client base and made a sales pitch to a hospital. The hospital said no and the clients weren’t coming through the door as quickly as hoped for. This rejection was enough to make this person make the decision that there was not a support system for her business, and she closed up shop. She is not alone in this type of thinking. Statistically, three out of four startups fail within the first three years. Many fail because they place their own value on external factors and react to their external environment like mice rather than lions. When I talk about being fierce business, people often mistake fierceness for aggressiveness and associate fierce business practice with hostile takeovers. Being fierce in business