Regrets on Opening & Closing a Small Business
Who likes regret? I don’t know many people who go through life pondering and reminiscing about all the things they regret. Whether it is words you should have said, a trip you should have taken, a dinner you should have cooked, most of us like to tuck those thoughts away and move on.
I can’t tell you the number of times I had friends or acquaintances asked me if I regretted opening a business. When I would share parts of my journey, they met me with discouragement and asked if I had regretted taking the plunge and risk. They asked if I missed the old version of my life prior to the chaos of owning a small business because THEY missed the version of myself I was before the toll of business operating had crept into my life.
What a crappy thing to say. What a crappy way to live.
Do I regret opening a small business? Not one bit. Do I regret closing my small business? Not one bit.
My business did not define me, but it took hold of my life. What would be worse though? Dreaming your whole life about being brave but never taking the leap? Or taking the plunge, crawling back up the rocky path, and looking back down at what you accomplished?
I once went cliff diving in college. There is a well-known area with massive cliffs in Arkansas and our choir traveled to this area for a weekend of fun and singing. I sat at the side for hours, watching the bravest among us jump off the sixty-foot drop and bobble back up to the surface after a moment. I never imagined in a million years I would be brave enough. But my choir professor approached me and could sense my inner fierce Texas spirit and dared me. HE DARED ME TO JUMP! And he would do it only if I would. So, after a few moments of thinking through the plan, I got up, walked to the edge, and jumped. And, because I had contacts in my eyes, I kept my eyes closed the entire time so I had no idea when the surface would break. But it did. And just as I came up for air, over the cliff came our professor, who I believe realized he had made a bet with the wrong person.
Business ownership is the same. More than likely, you take the plunge because you must prove to yourself that you can do it. If others want to watch or join, that’s just icing on the cake.
The timing of closing my business was part of a divine intervention. I would still be working to survive had an obvious change not made me force my hand. But, had I not closed, I would have regretted not having those last conversations with my dad just days before he took his last breath. Had I never opened, I would never understand what my boys saw in me, which was a mom who believed she could and so she did.
We all will have regrets. But chasing one dream so that you can make room for more shouldn’t ever be seen as anything other than truly living.