Could you tell me a time you felt scared?

When I launched my first full scale business I was 18. I opened a luxury clothing boutique in the small country town that I grew up in. I was so excited. Of course there were nerves and a little bit of anxiety around opening a business. There always is. I wasn’t scared or fearful but then again, I had never allowed those words in my vocabulary. My philosophy was to always give everything a crack, because if I do fail I’ll only be back where I started.

When that day came that I decided to close the business that had single handedly launched my adult life, I was petrified. I had given myself such high expectations and I just could not seem to get there. I was ​scared​. Scared because it wasn’t that I had to close the store due to financial hardship. It was because I had pushed my mental health down the list of priorities. I had let something so important slip out of my gasp, and I had felt as though something had to give.

Closing my business was my biggest failure and biggest success. I had to fail in order to establish a better life, a better routine and a healthy relationship with myself. My philosophy was to always give everything a crack, because if I do fail I’ll only be back where I started. This has changed. I now give everything a crack because if I do fail, I learn. I am no longer scared of failure. I am scared of not trying.