Maintaining Vision, Honoring Your Investors
How do we handle worthy contributions from friends, family, and even strangers..
Life Lessons
Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, we’ve all received worthy investments along the way and it’s time we honor them
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You’ve earned your way; you’ve earned your place in life, to take a chance in striving for whatever you want.
You’ve been bestowed with breath in your lungs and the chance to make something out of yourself. This is your life, your journey, your path, your potential. But you’re not out here hiking to the top of a mountain by yourself.
There are plenty of people cheering for you, standing at your side, rooting you on and some even helping to push you up the mountain.
This is the chance you’ve been waiting for, to strive for your dreams, and we all want you to succeed. Don’t lose hope or your passion to succeed.
You didn’t get here by yourself, and you’ll likely not reach the top by yourself either.
It’s remarkably important to recognize and forever remember your investors. You may not be an entrepreneur starting your own company, but you must remember your greatest stakeholders, your team of investors that have helped you reach where you are today. You may have received gifts of beneficence — either from private donors, public originations, the government, or community non-profits — and those gifts shall never be forgotten.
You’ve learned a lot. Let’s face it, you haven’t enjoyed every class or every lecture. Sure, there were some you dreaded but others you likely enjoyed and some you may have even loved. What are some of your greatest lessons of curriculum you can remember? Moreover, what are some of your greatest lessons of life you’ve learned over the years. These may sound cliché but holding on to our memory in the busyness of life and work, and the ever-increasing speeds at which we live is actually really important. I know it’s been said before, but it’s true when they say these years will go by in a flash and become a distant memory.
Don’t forget, you’ve gained loads of experience in life. You’re not the king by any means, but you have learned a lot have you not? I think you deserve to respect yourself and respect your journey and others should too. We don’t often gain respect by ruling with an iron fist or by taking on our favorite authoritative ruler in history, but rather we as young people can gradually gain respect by showing up, stepping up, and implementing change in the greatest of ways. We lead innovation; we lead innovation; our decisions have global impacts.
As it pertains to your future growth and trajectory, be sure not discredit yourself due to your youth, but also don’t fight for your rightful position. Reaching heights by only scratching and stomping on others is no way to level up. It will take time for you to understand your value and for it to be recognized for all its worth by others. Respect yourself, and understand you deserve respect. Appreciate yourself and grow to learn how to be appreciated. Love yourself and learn you too deserve to be loved.
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You wouldn’t offer or expect anything less than the best for other people, so don’t sell yourself short on all you’ve accomplished and the destiny of your dreams. You know not to listen to haters, but also, I want to remind you not to listen to the whispers of the naysayers. Those little whispers can have the greatest effects; listen with discernment.
Whispers can come in many shapes and sizes. Whispers can come from people surprisingly close to us and penetrate surprisingly close to our hearts. Many of us may even have little whispers we tell ourselves without realizing it. These whispers might stem from childhood, life experiences, or personal hardship. Be careful what whispers you hear yourself echoing at times of comfort, of sadness, of grief and anger especially. You are stepping out upon your greatest journey in life — aka your life itself — don’t let others detract you from striving for greatness.
Only you can be you, so be you.
People have taken a chance on you. I remember my first job at a hardware store, under an employer who was well respected community leader. I knew nothing of the tool world, or had even drilled a screw before, but he took a chance on me- one I will never forget as it helped me save a few thousand dollars over a couple years to help pay for college. I’m sure you’ve had similar individuals give you a chance as well.
Do we owe them anything? No, I wouldn’t say you “owe” them anything in particular, but I do believe they deserve to be honored and respected for the opportunities they have granted us. I suggest we step up and show up to our responsibilities with confidence and faith that we will be successful. I suggest we lean into the belief that “if he/she believes in me, then I too should believe in myself.”
This belief is something it took me many years into college, through counseling and discipleship, breaking and bonding of friendships before I truly began to understand what this meant for my life. If I’ve been granted thousands of dollars in grants, scholarships, loans, and more non-monetary capital for a chance to get a step up on life and emerge from the poverty-stricken childhood I knew just a few short years ago, then I better take these tokens with dutiful diligence and not squander the investments. Investment into my story, my narrative, my self-belief and self-respect. Investment into my future, my potential, my career, and impact unto this world. I try to keep the perspective that I will never let my investors down.
You too have been granted tokens, from friends, family, distant relatives, teachers, coaches, mentors, community members, and maybe even random strangers. Tokens can look vastly different in deferent settings. Maybe it’s a coach who really helped you realize your potential in a sport or a teacher who helped you after school understand the math lesson of the day. Maybe a school counselor helped you navigate finances for college and even helped you enroll.
Perhaps you’ve found some lost money lying on the ground before that you quickly snatched into your pocket. We all have the potential to excel in life. We all have the potential to use what we’ve been given to the best of our abilities. We all have the opportunity to capitalize on the investments given to us from others.
I shall not squander my infinite potential.
People want to see you prosper. There’s a reason why this is true, beyond what you could ever imagine. As human beings in our current societies, it can feel as if we are surrounded by anarchy and dissonance, but in reality, there still exists loads of human dignity, love, respect, altruism, and philanthropy. I assure you we have not lost our humanity despite what the news headlines may say.
In many corners of the world, humanity still stands strong with ringing bells of charity and volunteerism. Beauty still exists, and if someone wants to help you reach your own beautiful destiny, then it’s okay to let them. Furthermore, it’s okay to believe in your beautiful destiny despite the dissonance and dismay that it may seem like you are surrounded by.
Stand your ground while you stand in the light. Let the shadows fall where they may, but recognize that you can choose to stand in the light.
Photo by Blake Lisk on Unsplash
Those investments we talked about earlier, these are the pieces of extra credit you earned but never worked for direct return. This is the opportunity granted to you by the almighty universe, God, or whatever you believe in that is looking out for your best interest. You have imagined a dream, felt the unease of risk and taken a leap. You have faced obstacles and overcome challenges of all shapes and sizes.
It’s likely you may discredit these ventures or quite possibly forget them altogether. I implore you to do your best to journal and document your journey — to recognize and remember how far you’ve come and what you’ve learned along the way.
If you forget your history, you’ll likely repeat some missteps or mistakes of the past. It’s time to step up, to be proactive instead of reactive to situations in life. It’s time to learn to adapt and flex with the needs of any and all situations. Through all of your journey, you mustn’t forget your investors though, there are many people who believe in you, deeply. Remember who’s rooting for you and keep them in mind for your inspiration and dedication. Maintain your vision as only you can do. It is definitely okay to pivot and learn to adapt and adjust in changing times, but it’s not okay to give up. I repeat, it’s not okay to give up.
You must do right by your investors, to earn the degree of respect, professionalism, life-upbringing, and prosperity they so long for you to achieve and receive. The life you never imagined you could have is certainly within your very grasp — so don’t let anyone or anything take your greatest destiny away from you.
This is not the time to sit on the couch. No, those times are familiar in our history’s past, but now is the time to lean into beautiful responsibility. There are great challenges that await all of us, and consequently, greater accomplishments.
Strive forward with boundless momentum provided to you by your investors.
You have infinite potential and many people in your past pushing for your success. Your investors will forever be standing beside you as you learn to navigate each area of your life and career.
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