Last weekend my husband and I spent a few days in Nashville, TN with a couple friends of ours. A just-for-fun trip. In addition to the, err, beverage drinking and honky-tonk visiting, we spent a portion of one of our days visiting Carnton plantation, an old farm outside of Nashville in a town called Franklin. It was everything we thought it would be – big, beautiful, unique, full of history – but it was the latter detail that threw us the most. Carnton has a history. A SERIOUS history. If you’d like to read all about it, head over here. It includes the US civil war and lots of dying and fighting and blood and forgotten history. And blood. Lots and lots of blood.
We drove away from the house after the tour amazed. We had walked in without much thought, expecting to see a pretty, old house and kill some time, yet walked out inspired, intrigued, educated, and shocked about this new piece of history we never knew we didn’t know. A huge win.
My point? You never know what you’re gonna get. You never know what you’re gonna get! We branched out of our comfort zone – a bit beyond our normal interests – and ended up with a huge win. Like I said, we ended up inspired, educated, curious, and amazed. Apply this to business. You push yourself to do something you normally wouldn’t do, more often than not you’ll benefit. Sometimes, you’ll benefit huge. Will it make you uneasy to go present in front of 50 people when you’re normally comfiest in front of 5? Perhaps. Will it kill you? Of course not. Regardless of how it goes, will you grow from the experience? Yes.
It might be giving a presentation to a larger group, exploring a new type of marketing, learning a new technology, selling a product before you’re memorized all the facts, or even launching a new business. There aren’t many guarantees in the entrepreneurship world. There’s no guarantee that if you leap out of your comfort zone and try something new that you’ll succeed. There is a pretty solid guarantee, although, that if you do decide to leap you will at least be able to say that you tried it. You WILL learn something. And you know what? If you never leap at all, you won’t even have the chance to succeed.
Because you never know what you’re gonna get. And what if what you get is phenomenal? But if you don’t leap at all, you know what you’ll have – the same. Guaranteed.
I'm an author, marketer, and mommy who loves to read, write, and drink coffee. My husband and I live in suburban Kansas City with our two little girls. This site chronicles my world. Thanks for stopping by!
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