If you don’t take ownership, you don’t own

There is a popular saying “you can take a horse to a well, but you cannot make it drink the water”. That is often how I feel (me being the horse), when I try to understand a particularly different topic unreasonably quickly. I feel the frustration build up inside me when I don’t just “get it” in the required timeframe. “I am smart” I think, I should be able to just get this stuff! What is wrong with me?

Taking ownership is this long gnarly process, that involves putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation, knowing nothing at all, and suddenly getting that aha moment where everything clicks. Except, the aha moment is actually a culmination of the hours, days and sometimes weeks of grueling and hard work.

I remember when I started my company 2 years ago — with no business knowledge of taxes, accounting or legal information. I remember deciding to learn, wanting to learning, and needing to learn in order to make it work. I remember taking ownership of the process. It was mine, and I need to make it happen. If I didn’t no one could do it for me. It is one moment of my life that I am proud of for taking full ownership of where I was heading, and what I needed to do, and the uncomfortable bits of not knowing how to get there.

I will end with this — when you own it, magical things happen to you, when you don’t, it passes you by.