By some train of thought, I came across the inspiring story of Arlan Hamilton, an investor and founder that defied odds and started a venture capital fund that primarily focuses on getting funds to entrepreneurs that are generally passed over and overlooked.
One quote led to another and it added fuel to the fire within me to get serious about entering the entrepreneurship field again. Into creating my dream life again. As I shift, so does my needs, wants and desires. I trust that I have a vision that wants to come to life.
I built a business during the pandemic and paused on launching it because I was figuring out logistics. It ended up getting bought out before I launched. Another piece I read stated that a buyout offer is an indicator and validation that you’re on the right path. But I decided to let it go and build something else more sustainable.
So I’m learning to walk again. And learning to make peace with my Achilles’ heel: self doubt.
I learned so much reading about this woman’s journey and my thoughts kept expanding at an exponential rate.
It’s not that the ‘haves’ should have less.
It’s that the ‘have-nots’ should also ‘have’.
Be delusional on purpose. Whatever you want, whatever you dream, whatever your soul’s desire is…is achievable. And all it really comes down to is, what I believe, to be 3 main components:
- Your Mindset
- Your Resilience
- Your Support System
You need to cultivate a strong and determined mindset. You need to develop the resilience to deal with potential rejections and the ability to pivot in changing times. And you need to find and/or create a support system to help you during the times you don’t think you can. And in the beginning, you may be doing a lot of things alone because you haven’t found your person/people yet.
AUTHENTICITY & AUDACITY
“Be yourself so that people looking for you can find you.”
“…people need their Truth reflected back to them.”
Don’t be afraid to be yourself. It can feel difficult when society and your environment expects you to mask and cover up who you really are.
Know that you’re meant to shine. Know that you’re meant to thrive. Know that your fullest self might be triggering to people because you are a mirror of their light and their shadows. Strengthen your resolve not to dim your light and move through life powerfully in your Truth, whatever that may be.
An affirmation you may like to implement is:
It is safe for me to live my Highest Truth,
to step into my fullest, embodied Self.
To shine, brilliantly, brightly and fabulously.
You’re not better than anyone but you can be the best version of YOU that you can be. Have the audacity to be yourself so that the right people will find you.
Know your worth. Own your power. You can and you will.
CONNECTIONS & COMMUNITY
Your connections & community = your first million.
Having a wide network increases value. Every new person increases the # of people you can connect one another with & who in turn can connect you.
In Arlan’s journey, raising $5 million dollars took 6,500 people. That averages out to about $770 per person. In turn, these 6,500 people gain a stake in her fund and see returns on their initial investment.
That kind of grassroots crowdfunding and investing shifts the entire game. It no longer is about one person/entity that can control the flow. It’s about a collaborative and communal effort. To find $5 million from one person vs. a larger group changes the odds.
If you asked every friend you know for $1…how much could you have?
Which leads me to the next expansion…
ON WINS & JOY
Wins benefit not only yourself but also catalyzes wins for others.
The ability to share your wins with a larger group of people…to uplift, influence and inspire others to gain control of their own lives. To create their own realities. That’s a really important factor in this upcoming timeline.
“I am allowing myself to feel joy. Because I feel like that’s activism in itself.”
Remember to “celebrate both the small & big wins – and have a little fun every once in a while.”
A lot of people have trouble celebrating themselves. This is something I’m constantly working on. When you have big dreams and big ambitions, it usually means you’re hard on yourself. Celebrating the little wins are just as important as the big wins. You need to be proud of every little thing you’re doing. This helps build your resilience for moments when you don’t get a win.
Keep a journal or ongoing list about your ‘wins’, whatever those may be.
Let yourself be happy. Allow yourself to feel joy. Regardless of what’s going on in your life.
OPENING PATHWAYS FOR OTHERS
“Be a key maker not a gate keeper.”
Arlan touches upon the topic of being a key maker and not a gatekeeper. A big part of developing her ethos when starting her fund was the choice between three decisions: 1) get upset and give up, 2) join the club by trying to fit in, or 3) get a seat at the table and bring others along.
One of the things that I’ve loved my entire life is inspiring others who were where I was just a short while ago by sharing what I learned. Every journey is different but information and knowledge sharing is so important. Information and knowledge is the most important resource and it’s so widely available. You can learn just about anything online nowadays. But create keys to share with others instead of hoarding or gate keeping things.
Which leads to the belief in abundance:
There’s more than enough for everyone.
Just because you get your piece of the pie doesn’t mean that others go without. It means that you can help others get theirs too. Everyone deserves abundance. It’s just about whether or not you can create a way to it.
And that takes developing a belief…
ON MINDSET
“Radical self belief is the knowledge that whatever you’re being paid is not enough, whatever power you have, you can always have more, and there’s more than enough to go around. We have to understand we can be anything.”
power of imagination + confidence + grit + resilience = ability to overcome odds that otherwise might have been seen as insurmountable
You need to start evaluating your mindset. If you’re feeling any sort of frustration, anger or stagnancy, it means that you know that you dream bigger than where you are in this moment.
It means that your mindset that has gotten you here has been great but now it needs to be expanded for you to go to where you want to be next.
Having a good mindset is the most important part of this journey. 80% of the work should be done in the mind. 20% of the work is the effort you put out.
Some important questions I come back to time and time again are:
- What is your relationship to money?
- What are some self-limiting and disempowering beliefs you notice yourself subscribing to? How can you start to shift them to remove the barriers blocking you from your next step?
- How do you cope with failures or something not working out?
- How is your ability to pivot?
“If you’re lacking confidence, mentally take the other people who are proud of you or the people rooting for you or the people who you’re helping into the rooms with you. That’s what I did. It was the only way I would have really been able to survive certain aspects of rejection, disappointment, and loss to have the spiritual and mental fortitude to do it. I was like, ‘This is for other people who are really deserving of these opportunities and who haven’t historically had them.”
An important part of strengthening your mindset and resolve is to think about the people that love you, believe in you, support you, trust you and people that you want to uplift.
Knowing your ‘WHY’ is important. And sometimes that ‘WHY’ includes the people that have walked with you along your journey.
If someone else can do it, so can you.
Any excuse you come up with is just that – an excuse. A limiting belief. Remove those blocks so you can have what you want.
Arlan mentioned that for every 99 ‘nos’, it led her to her one ‘yes’. And that whenever a rejection happened, it was because a bigger brighter better yes was just around the corner.
So keep going even if you feel like you need to give up. Especially if this is a dream/goal/desire that you know is for you.
Otherwise, exercise diligence and learn to let go of things that aren’t resonating with you anymore.
ENVISION THE FUTURE
“A calling is something that pulls at you, and a dream is more you chasing it. Dreams are very catalytic and help you with momentum.”
Have a thesis: form it around what you want the world to look like in 5, 10, 20 plus years.
What does the future you want to live in look like in 5, 10, 20+ years?
What is your long term vision?
Understand that as you grow and change, so will your vision. So don’t get too caught up on the details. But understand where you’re aiming focus. If 5 years is too long term and you don’t have enough data, then think about a week…a month…a year…
Start with small things. Maybe you’d like to live somewhere else, do something else, have a different group of friends, a partner, make some changes to an area that is important to you.
ON WHAT TO DO NEXT
“If you don’t feel you can rock the boat in your current role while feeling healthy and safe, then you continue doing what you need to do and you have your outlets elsewhere. You have your private moments, you vent, you read.
“Let Success Be Your Activism: A Chat With Arlan Hamilton” – Future for Us, Medium
If you feel like you are on the fence about where you are now, stay there and keep an eye on them. Keep your health insurance, keep your paycheck, and keep an eye on people. When you get to the point where you know they are not going to change, or that they are changing isn’t going to do enough, then you go. You do more, do different, do better by yourself. But until then, you can work on that side hustle and collect those coins at the same time. It’s a strategy. It’s shifting the mindset that you are an asset, you can turn every job, even the ones you hate, into an education opportunity.”
Start asking for what you want. Start small. Start big. Start wherever you are. You might get some ‘nos’. You might get some ‘yeses’. Someone/thing will be able to meet that need. The right people/thing will. So start having the audacity to ask for what you truly want. No more playing small. Own what you want. Be a powerful catalyst.
“When it comes to the money lane, the demands are: “You need to start listening to us, you need to do it fast, and iterate on what we are telling you. Put resources behind that within your organizations or we are going to build other organizations. I don’t want to burn down your organization… But, if you don’t make changes, I’m going to pay for the bricks and the stones to build a new house. Why are we knocking on this door to keep going unanswered? Let them be your first investor. That corporate job you have now is the side hustle. The demand is listen and believe us. Or else, we’re going to take all of our wealth, talent, assets, information, and lived experience and build without you.””
“Let Success Be Your Activism: A Chat With Arlan Hamilton” – Future for Us, Medium
If you’re in a field where you feel like you’re constantly knocking on a door that won’t open for you…maybe you’re meant to carve a different way around the mountain. Sometimes it takes a while for something to warm up. And sometimes you need to know when you need to stop wasting your own time, energy and resources and start creating a space for you.
It’s like a lot of underserved, underestimated and undervalued communities, creators and ideas…
If you’re not getting what you need from an external resource, start compiling your inner resources to build a framework of your own.
I hope this piece inspires you to start living and creating and believing that you deserve the life that you really want.
xo,
Jules
Sources:
“Arlan Hamilton Is Showing You How To Make Your First Million” – Holly Corbett, Forbes
Let Success Be Your Activism: A Chat With Arlan Hamilton – Future for Us, Medium
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