Excerpt from the new book, Insights From a Spaghetti-Slinging Entrepreneur by Anthony Zolezzi.
Recently I had a major deal on which I had been working intensely fell apart — analogous in fishing parlance to “the one that got away.” I was also emotionally involved in this particular proposition because it would have helped millions of people on their path to better health. The reasons, however, aren’t what’s important to this insight. What is important is having the ability to quickly shake off a disappointment of this sort so that it doesn’t discourage you from quickly moving on to something else that might have a potentially greater impact on society and might just succeed.
Now, just how do you go about pulling yourself out of the negative frame of mind that a temporary defeat can put you in? How do you move on to just the thought of pushing another innovation, initiative or movement forward?
Well, here’s a thought that I base on my own previous experiences with ven-tures that, for on reason or another, didn’t pan out: Maybe a higher power didn’t intend them to, because there were better prospects in your immediate future that you might well have overlooked had the initial one succeeded.
It helps, of course, to believe there’s something more than chance at work in such a sequence of events. If you’re religious, you might attribute it to Divine intervention—but even if you’re not, you can still believe that some higher power or energy field closed the last door so that you would open this one.
Now, this need not be about belief in the Almighty intervening on your behalf, but rather about having a belief in yourself and underlying faith that you are somehow being guided in your mission of having a positive impact on the planet, as difficult as such a course might seem to navigate in the face of acute disappointment.
But the point is, no matter how temporarily frustrated you may be feeling about being kept from realizing an immediate goal, what you have to keep firmly in mind is that it’s only because something more meaningful is likely to be waiting in the wings than “the one that got away”—and you have to be ready to give it your undivided attention.
From the new book, Insights from a spaghetti-slinging entrepreneur. Thirty-eight real-life business vignettes from CEO, consultant, environmentalist and author Anthony Zolezzi that will help galvanize your own entrepreneurial spirit and put your endeavors on a rewarding path.
Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash