Confessions of an Award-Winning Female Entrepreneur
I just want to sit down… and not work. And be a mom. And cook. And read. And, and and…
I feel like I’m betraying the sisterhood, as I write this. I’m an award-winning, successful entrepreneur. I have a killer career, working on some of the world’s biggest brands, and ran one of North America’s most successful boutique PR & social media agencies.
But the truth of the matter is…
I just want to sit down. I don’t want to work full-time. I don’t want more and more clients, and get busier and busier. I want to make money, without doing all the hard work.
I had a baby three years ago — and watched all the mothers with jobs, take a proper mat leave, and sit down for a year. (Don’t get me wrong — raising a baby is hard work, so they didn’t fully get to “sit down”). But what I mean is that I took a few weeks off, and as self-employed women do, then worked and mothered at the same time.
And you can bet I was jealous as all hell of my mom friend who got to cook and bake while her son napped. There I was, frantically responding to emails and dealing with clients, when my baby napped.
My son is now 3 and in daycare. My consulting business is thriving — it’s a 6-figure business, with incredible clients and I make an impact every day.
But if I sit down, and don’t work 40 hours (and do the things I’d love to do, like cook, and read)… well, where will all the money come from?
There’s a better way
Yep, this story could have been entirely different. I’m 43 now — can you imagine if I had invested lots of money or bought more property in my 20s, so that I could live either partially or fully on passive income?
That instead of trying to find enough hours in the day and in the week, I could be leading a slower paced life, with more time to do the things I enjoy like cooking, reading and yoga. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
My 43-year old self kicks my 22 year old-self, suggesting it would have been nice to have bought property, that by now would have been cash flow positive and given me another income stream.
Here’s the worst part — men figured this out early. I’m seeing them, especially male entrepreneurs, slowing life down, doing more things they enjoy and making even more money.
Did we women skip this lesson in wealth creation school? Seems like an important, early lesson that would have changed our game. Perhaps if we women had properly learned this, we wouldn’t be experiencing burnout and we would be fully steeped in our own economic power.
Some big questions to ask, that’s for sure. I’ll ponder them as I cook dinner. After I’ve done the daycare pickup, and answered emails of course. Then maybe I’ll get to sit down.
