Hello Roses,

I thought this week I would do more of an update on my business and what I am getting up to in my days rather than talk about a particular subject.

Meetings

So last week was a hectic one for me. The beginning of the week was filled with meetings with a couple of partners helping me make the prototypes of my shoe design (it’ll be another few weeks until version two!). They were two very different meetings with two very different personalities and it struck me how I am the manager of this project and I need to be a leader. At the age of 24, it’s safe to say I haven’t had much managerial experience in the workplace. But I believe to a certain extent you are either a leader or you are not. In any case, I set down some boundaries as this is my project and my company.

Reflection

The latter end of the week was more reflective. It was the last session with the AllBright Academy which has been a 12 week programme of intensive learning and personal growth. We all set goals at the beginning of the course and last week we shared whether we had achieved them or not. Mine was “To do more Market Research and to get Investor Ready”. Turns out I haven’t completely hit that goal, although I have spoken to an investor in the last 12 weeks, so I guess we can half tick that one.

Learning

We also had to share our ‘biggest learning’. It has only struck me in the last few weeks whilst reading Fearne Cotton’s HAPPY book, that I have always tended to pin success and happiness together. For me, they were the same thing. Throughout education, I would only be happy once I had passed that test with flying colours, or made sure I was in the top sports teams. This carried on to University, where the pressure I put on myself to achieve would perhaps hinder my happiness. Although, as I have spoken about in ‘Unsatisfied with Satisfaction’, dissatisfaction drives me (and many others) forwards to achieve more in life, success and happiness should not be mutually exclusive.

The way I now view things is that success should be a long term achievement. Something you have worked hard for and almost mysterious in it’s appearance. Happiness is something much more readily available. It is all around us and can be found in any moment. The fist sip of coffee in the morning, sunshine on your back, the sound of waves or the laughter of someone close to you. You can be happy whilst striving to achieve success. I now know they are not the same thing and that has been my biggest learning over the last 12 weeks.

As always, please leave a comment below if you wish.

Kind regards,

Emily x