Stock photo of Western woman off to save the world.
The Dalai Lama said “the world will be saved by the Western woman”. I'm not sure what his rationale was, but I tend to agree.
The average middle aged white lady in the U.S. grew up at a time when we were told we could be anything we wanted to be. We went to college, went into the corporate world, and had early success. But most of us realized that much of the corporate world is very toxic, especially to someone who is an out of the box thinker. Inside most companies, burnout, subtle discrimination in wages and promotions, and a lack of investment in the individual are common.
So when it comes time to have kids, it's easy to drop out if your family has the financial means to do so. If your work experience always kind of sucked. Our society is not set up to have both parents work full time the way some other countries are. Plus a lot of moms had kids because they want to spend time with them and be the greatest influence on their lives, especially in the early years while their child was not yet in school full time. So it's easy to let the job go.
Once the kids are older and mom is ready to go back to work, she often finds there has been a steep penalty for stepping out of the corporate world for a few years. Someone who was earning $80,000 before she left is worth $45,000 ten years late when she tries to come back. While yes, she may have missed some changes in her field while she was out, she's now getting funneled into more administrative roles versus the more prestigious sales or project management roles she had before.
So maybe she decides to step out on her own and start her own business instead. Working as an entrepreneur gives her the flexibility she needs to still be the on-call parent.
But here's the thing no one will tell you about being an entrepreneur – it is REALLY hard. It REALLY sucks, especially at first.
When you realize there's no longer a boss keeping you down, any failures must be yours. It's hard not to take this personally.
Now I understand the scenario I'm outlining is not everyone's story. Not all women feel uncomfortable inside corporate America. Not all companies are the same. Not all women have children. Not all women with children become the primary caregivers. Not all women with children stop working. Not all women who stop working have trouble getting hired back into their old roles. Not all women start businesses. Not all entrepreneurs face challenges initially.
But a lot of people fit into at least a piece of this story. And for those women, either depression or self-reflection is the next step. Probably both.
You see, when you can no longer blame the company or your boss for holding you back, you have to search harder for why things aren't working. So you dive into learning sales and marketing. You study business finance and bookkeeping. You increase your product knowledge and tweak your packages. You work harder and smarter and hire help and still, things don't go according to plan.
That's when you have three choices. You quit (but then what?). Or you limp along, making friends but not money and “playing business”. Or you start to dive deep into self-reflection and learning.
And this is where we get on track to save the Western world.
Once you realize that most of the drama in your life is the result of unresolved childhood trauma, you get the therapy, counseling, or coaching you need to clear those issues. You become more wise, more calm, and less reactive.
You start to understand that a lot of the perceived terrible things other people are doing to you are actually your projections – the problem is how you are perceiving the behavior and what you are making it mean, not the behavior itself.
You start to study law of attraction to attract clients and money, and realize you could also attract peace and harmony in your relationships. You start to realize that we are all interconnected and interdependent. You may even realize that we are all one.
And so, the crisis of realizing you are your own biggest obstacle in life gives you the opportunity to heal yourself, and by healing yourself, to start to heal your little corner of the world.
If you are an upper middle class white woman in the U.S. who owns a business, you have the means and the time flexibility to do this work that many other people simply do not have.
So fellow entrepreneurs, my message to you about your business is that nothing has gone wrong. You are right where you are supposed to be. Get the support you need to shift your understanding of reality.
The world is waiting on you.
Are you ready to hire a coach to take your mind to the next level?
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