Pick Your Pain

I created my first crude cafe business plan in 2005. Cat & Cloud’s first retail store opened in 2016. At some point in this time window I knew enough to get started but didn't believe in myself enough to follow through.

There were other factors in creating something that worked—my great business partners for example. But I’d known them for years at this point. It’s not like they weren’t around, it’s that they couldn’t appear as business partners until the choice was made to start the business.

So while a certain level of expertise is needed to create impact, if you find yourself continually stalling on your projects, it’s prudent to ask yourself if you’re preparing or simply avoiding responsibility.

Two things stick out to me here:

1. You get to pick your pain. The pain of moving forward despite the uncertainty (that hurts now), or the pain of not trying (that hurts later).

2. The only way to honor your future self is by trusting your current self.