Today I received a phone call at 6am and it was my daughter calling from Australia. She was upset and completely miserable as she was sick and unwell. This threw me into a spin as I am currently here in America with only 3 weeks before I fly back home to Australia.
Even as I write this and listen to the video I have created for this blog it brings me to tears. I am very close to my daughter, as a single parent bringing her up in those early years we have a very close bond and we are always there for each other. And, when I cannot be there it causes a real guilt or a sadness that I cannot explain… only feel.
When I started this entrepreneurial journey back in 2006 there were many sacrifices that were made. One of them being my full-time salary as a corporate accountant. Even though I was so pleased and relieved to have left ‘the job’ the full-time salary stopped. This places additional pressure on you and your household. Times were difficult, however, I managed to replace my household income through business and real estate.
The other sacrifice I had to make was leaving my daughter with my parents so that I could pursue further mentoring and coaching overseas in America. Once I had 12 months of very intense coaching and I had made that decision to start a business I had to fly back to America twice every year to create and build the business. This required me to be away from my daughter in the month of April and September from the age of 10 years old.
There was guilt and judgement that was attached to leaving my daughter in Australia and me being here in America. People here would look at me strange to think I was travelling here to America on my own. They would say ‘Ohhh… but doesn’t your family miss you back home?’. Of course they miss me… its just that I want to build a life of meaning and purpose for me and my daughter and to do that I have to spend time away from her to make this happen.
The upside to those sacrifices… the benefits to creating and running your own business is you now have freedom and flexibility to be able to be around your family the rest of the year round.
I think the purpose of this blog is to let you know there are always sacrifices that have to be made when starting your own business. They are not always good sacrifices in the beginning… however, once you have established your business and you have sustainable cash flow coming in and you reflect back it is so worth it.
My daughter now sees me as a role model as an independant person that goes out and creates what she want to and this has been the environment that she has been around for all those years. She has developed an incredible work ethic and ‘can do’ attitude that no schools or colleges taught her. Just being around a mom that has stepped outside the box to create a life of meaning and purpose.
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