Yesterday, I saw a greeting card that made me tear up. On the front, it said this:
No ship makes the journey alone. She requires the wind and the stars and the sea.
I looked at that card for a long time, thinking about what it meant, and what it means in my life. For a long time, I felt like a ship alone at sea. I bought into the American myth of the "self-made" person and thought I had to do everything alone; that if I asked for help, it meant that I couldn't really do the things I wanted to do. That I was weak for needing assistance, or advice, or even just a shoulder to lean on.
And then, in my late 30's I met a series of really fantastic people—women and men—whom I have stitched together into a solid safety net for myself. There are the women in my WPO group, who have seen me at every possibly stage of my business and personal life and have demonstrated to me, time and again, that it is okay to ask for help, and that they will be there for me when I need them. There's my M&A guy, who is so very graciously always available for a quick text or a cup of coffee when I'm wrestling with something in my business, and who encourages me to think bigger than I normally would. There's my dear attorney (who even gets to say that?) who has listened to me cry and provided calm guidance when things seemed particularly dark. There's the handful of incredibly bright, wonderful women who I've been lucky enough to be friends with for more than a decade as kids and careers and marriages have changed our lives. And then there's my husband and my daughter, my twin North stars, making sure I can see my way home after every rough voyage.
Without any and all of these people (and the innumerable ones I haven't mentioned), I would not be who I am today or where I am today. I wouldn't have the courage to leap out on my own, or declare my own greatness, or even write this blog every day. They are my wind and my stars and my sea, and I hope that I can be some of that to some of them.
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