‘Don’t be afraid to make mistakes’
8th March was International Women’s day. This year it seemed to pass by me without really celebrating any particular woman- well anyone famous, that is. This year I honour my mother, who has inspired me to be a kind, loving and thoughtful human being. As I write this, my mother is having an operation, a pretty intense one I will say. But I know my mother is a private person, so I will not go into depth about the procedure, what I will say is that she won’t be able to speak for a while. For my mum not to be able to talk, is a big thing in her world. She is taking this challenge on with grace and determination, and while I’m miles away from her, I have been on the phone to her every day for the past 6 weeks. We have spoken about the delicious raspberries she has picked from her garden, to new cake recipes using soaked dates and to her new kitten, Blue, running around the house.
This week I have been reading my issue of RED, it’s a magazine my husband subscribes to and has been for the past 20 years now. I find it a real treat to read and I have found that all the articles are relevant to my life and I’m always learning something. In the column ‘Smart Women, How I got there’ , I read about the first female chef to have three michelin starred restaurants, Clare Smyth MBE. At the end of her piece she writes ,’Never be afraid to make mistakes, you won’t discover new things otherwise’ . I think perhaps this is one reason why I have not set up anything before. I never like to make mistakes. I can spend hours and hours planning, almost to the point where I overplan and it becomes difficult to execute the plan because I have had a chance to think about all the potential things that can go wrong.
The past few weeks I have encountered a little bit of self doubt in my ability to set up a business. I’m thinking this ‘self doubt’ is a natural part of the journey as I navigate my way through this map. This self doubt reminds me a bit of the self doubt I felt throughout all my pregnancies. Around week 32 I would be overcome with this sense of self doubt and that I wouldn’t be able to go through with the birth. Even when I was having my 4th child, I still experienced this self doubt, even though I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing.
On reflection, I believe this self doubt is because of my fear of making mistakes. So when it comes to Patti Cakes or Bonza Bakesn(would you believe I still haven’t agreed on a name :) ), I’m scared to make a mistake and see the vision flop. So, I tell myself, each mistake I make, brings me closer to knowing what I need to do next. And, yes, I will make mistakes, but it’s what I do with the information I gain that should be my challenge. So I have decided to launch after Easter- provided I have my registration from the council, I’m going to start selling my cakes and see where it leads me.
Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing and inspiring women I have read about and will read about in the future!
