A few weeks ago, I attended a MumsNet event where the keynote speaker was Michelle Mone of Ultimo bra fame.
Michelle is one of the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs. She really is a shining example of how grit and determination can lead you to global success. Earlier this year it was announced that she was to become a Tory peer and last week she took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Mone of Mayfair.
What an incredible story. At MumsNet Workfest, Michelle talked to a packed audience about how she grew up in the East End of Glasgow. She left school at 15 with no qualifications, she was pregnant at 18, became Head of Marketing for Labatt, redundancy at age 24, before becoming a very wealthy business owner. She lost £1.8m when a distributor ran off with Ultimo’s money; then to add insult to injury, her heart was broken when she discovered her husband was having an affair.
She got back up
Yet she got back up. Again. Again. And again. She told a truly inspirational and moving rags-to-riches story.
What struck me about Michelle, was her determination and her persistence. Ultimo was an “overnight” business success story in the media, however like any overnight success, there were years of hard work, grit, determination and persistence to achieve that success. When you run your own business, you have to believe in yourself, in your product, and you have to think big.
Think big, dream big, go and do it!
One of my clients recently said to me “I don’t think I can think big …” “But what if you could” I asked her. “What would it look like?” I encouraged her to close her eyes and think about her big vision. And wow, it was amazing … as she started to describe and explore her vision, so much detail came tumbling out. Detail she didn’t even know was there.
So you see. We can all think big, we can all dream big, and then you just need to Go and Do IT!
I dare you … I dare you to dream big. What will you be when you think big and dream big? If you need a little help to find your “big”, let’s have a chat.
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