Inspiration strikes. You get a brilliant business idea. You start taking steps forward in pure excitement.
BAM. Your family and friends rain on your parade. You might be wondering why they can’t just support you, be excited for you, and jump right in, either as a customer, a business partner/investor, a referral pipeline, or your most vocal cheerleader.
This is incredibly common – so much that if you went into any entrepreneur focused Facebook group on any day, you’d likely find at least one post asking what to do if your family or friends don’t support your business. So what’s this all about? And what should you do about it?
It can be threatening
Sometimes, our friends or family freak out when we are growing, changing, and trying something new because we are changing, and they’d rather we stay the same. In this case, they’ll resist your growth. It can be a fear that you’ll leave them behind, or a belief that your changes mean that you disapprove of their choices. It feels like a threat to the way things are – and as we know, humans would prefer things stay about the same.
It isn’t their job
A lot of times, we have the feeling that they don’t support us because we are expecting them to believe in us and our idea before we do ourselves. We get offended that they don’t think we can do it or be successful — expecting them to do that work. The truth is, it is our responsibility to support ourselves mentally, believe in our ability to achieve our goals, and do the work to create all those beliefs first. It’s ok if our closest loved ones are the last to realize our potential with our businesses. Imagine how blown their minds will be once you succeed!
They don’t get it
Girl…..if you’ve got a bunch of friends and family members who are not entrepreneurs themselves, here is your wake up call: they have no clue what you’re doing. This online entrepreneur world is a new and weird frontier. Unless you’re directly in it, you truly have no clue. They truly just may have no idea what you’re doing it actually real, or understand the income potential. And as a side note: don’t ask them for advice about your business. The only place you should be taking advice from as an entrepreneur is from someone else who is in it with you, preferably who has already accomplished the things you want to accomplish.
What’s it about (hearing what they are really saying)
Ok, so now you get where they are coming from, and are no longer expecting them to understand what you’ve got going on here. But don’t just disregard what they say and write them off. Hear what they are really saying, underneath what sounds like a lack of support and a heavy duty dose of skepticism: “I love you, I want you to be happy.”
Now every time they ask how your business is, then chime in with some weird comment, choose to hear the words between the words: “I love you, I want you to be happy,” then thank them, love on them, and proceed in your business exactly as you’ve planned.
