An immigrant blessing
May the year rise up to meet you.
May ideas always be at your back.
May the smiles of people shine warm upon your face;
their dreams reflected from the fire in your eyes.
May the anchor of hope hold you firm amidst the turbulence.
There’s only so many formats a person can create at a time. Some time in 2019, I discovered that I far preferred talking to people. Over writing. Yeah! Me. A writer of decades. Always believed it was my highest talent. It’s not.
I haven’t been writing for pleasure for a bit.
I came back to give you this immigrant blessing, though.
2020 was… something.
It’s painfully clear, even to those that were holding out on baseless shreds of hope, that the vaccines aren’t coming till September. Sure, they’re here now. But I’m like 288 millionth in priority list, in the grand scheme of the vaccine-worthy world.
And you’re probably that gal 2 in front of me.
Is that “another year gone”?
Or is it “I see you, 2020. And I’ll raise you everything I’ve got.”?
Last year, I was stinking fortunate enough to work intensively in a space where ideas are born. In that gritty entrepreneurial space where people threw off their yoke of “service only” ie: time-based, efficient-systems-heavy, and seriously scaled.
What. Ever. It. Took.
That often involved building product that gave shape to recesses of people’s minds that usually housed their zone of genius.
It’s exhilarating.
And terrifying.
And much too personal.
It’s the space where ideas are born!
And I love it here.
The angst of creation is my jam.
I recognize it intimately.
The highs and the lows.
The resilience.
The blood, sweat, tears.
But also.
The ear-cracking smiles.
The eye-popping wonder.
The sometimes succeeding far beyond your wildest dreams. (even if there was a ‘Bruce and the spider’ quality to all it)
It’s the reason so many people are interested in this tiny little thing I decided I wanted to try and build barely a few years ago.
It’s because I get that headspace. And I’ve found my people along the way that get it too.
So trust me when I say this to you.
(You really should. I have spent thousands of hours, no really, 35,740 – I calculated, in places where ideas were created. About a third of that on my own, as a immigrant in Canada. Scary odds don’t scare me nearly as much as they do many. So there’s social proof. Now listen.)
You HAVE got this.
The road will rise to meet you.
If you’re still reading this, you are one of two people.
- You are the birther of ideas and you understand every word I’ve said so far. The entrepreneur in the making. My favourite kind of person.This is a sign!
- You are a senior spoke in a corporate wheel and it’s part of your job to understand how the small business engine of Canada thinks. (and you like us, just a tiny bit ;))
What I offer may sound like ‘risky advice’ to some.
That’s probably not you if you’re on this list, whether actively, or just listening.
If you are brave enough to change the world on the average Tuesday.
If building an audience out of nothing is your adrenalin.
If you will change and adapt to make things happen for people.
If you often find yourself putting purpose over profit.
Then 2021 has nothing on you.
Lean into it. Now’s the time.
This is what you were born for.
Whatever that thing is that you think is bigger than you… Just make one step towards it now. Do it.
It’s ‘the hunger games’. And it’s not that scary. (They band together, survive, inadvertently lead the revolution, overthrow the villain, and decline to rule. Purpose over profit! Find yours.)
Peace
Susan
Poem up top inspired by an Irish Blessing 👇
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
