When you’re contemplating setting out as a freelancer, or creating your own business, it can feel so weighed down with pressure to make this step exactly right. Not just to ensure your financial security or to develop a successful business model, but also the idea that this is your big new career FOREVER so you better get it right. All or nothing.

But what if you knew in advance that it wasn’t going to work out perfectly? What if the first incarnation of your new business may not fulfil you the way you want it to, but it will definitely be a step in the right direction?

If I’d heard that while I was still in my 9 – 5, it might have felt very disheartening. But from the other side, I see so clearly that without the first step, I couldn’t have taken the second or third, and the third is where I’m meant to be.

From inside your day job, it’s impossible to see all the future opportunities that will become available to you as they simply don’t exist yet for the current version of you. As Bex Singleton summarised so wisely in her interview earlier this week, “You have to be in a position where you can accept opportunities in order for them to come to you.”

I’ve heard so many versions of this from fellow entrepreneurs. For some, branching out on their own is the first time that their biggest skills get a chance to blossom and shine and they stretch into opportunities that they simply wouldn’t have considered for themselves before.

For others, they move in new circles and cross paths with people who become their partners and collaborators, creating new ventures together than neither would have conceived of alone.

If you’re contemplating making a leap of your own and aren’t sure if it’s going to be ideal for you long term, maybe it’s OK to let it be just right for right now, knowing that it’s only the first step on a new path. 

INTERVIEW: BEX SINGLETON

Describe your project. What excites you about it? What difference has it made to your life, your community or the world?

I worked for a University for over five years, and then finally took the leap of going into freelance photography. I was in London, mostly shooting dance, portraits, the occasional event, and massively enjoying it, when there was a sudden random opportunity to come out to Sierra Leone.

Since being here I’ve had the opportunity to shoot for NGOs such as Save The Children, USAID, Helen Keller International, and UN Agencies, particularly Unicef. I very much hope that the photography that I’m doing here is helping development organisations to encourage donors, to spread their messages further, and that they help to add insight into the projects that they are running here. 

I also hope that some of the work I produce helps to promote a different vision of Sierra Leone and the people here. Many friends when I was moving out here asked questions like ‘isn’t there a civil war there?,’ when in fact the ten year anniversary of peace has already passed.

On a smaller scale, I’m now able to start generators using car batteries, make glue out of polystyrene and petrol, can identify a few deadly snakes, and recognise when I’ve got malaria, again. Some very important life skills.

What were you afraid of before you started or as you began?

Alongside being hugely excited, I was pretty terrified before I moved out here. I’d never lived abroad before and had never been to sub Saharan Africa. I didn’t know if I would cope.

I was also scared that I simply wouldn’t be up to scratch work wise. Whilst I have a lot of experience as a photographer, I hadn’t done any work specifically like this before.

What helped you to get past these fears?

In terms of living abroad, whilst initially scary, very quickly normal life sets in. Initially I felt overwhelmingly fascinated with everything going on around me, but didn’t figure out ways to actually relax until I found things that I could do to take care of myself and stay balanced.

In terms of fear, I think if you want to do something enough, then the fear, in a way, can help fuel you to do so. If something provokes fear in me, it generally means it matters a lot to me.

 What tips would you give others?

Think in the now. My biggest fears definitely emerge when I think too much about the future. But what will I do in a years’ time? How am I going to make this work as a career long term? How will I ever get a job afterwards if I decide this isn’t what I want? All of these types of questions make it fairly impossible to focus on doing the best that you can day by day.

Ultimately if I hadn’t left my secure job, the opportunity to come here wouldn’t have emerged. You have to be in a position where you can accept opportunities in order for them to come to you. Taking the risk to try something, even if it’s not what you consider to be a success, leads you further towards doing something that does fulfill you.  

Bex Singleton is 31 years old and lives in Freetown, Sierra Leonne. You can see more of her personal photography at www.bexsingleton.com, and explore the company she works for in Sierra Leonne at www.charlycox.com. 

When I quit my day job at the age of 39 to start my freelance business, some of the people close to me got worried when I spoke about creating freedom and finding work that really mattered. I was accused of having a bit of a mid-life crisis. I keep hearing similar tales from others who are transitioning into entrepreneurship around the age of 40, “My Boss/Mum/Husband/Friend thinks I’m just having a mid-life crisis, maybe they are right!”

With each generation, some social stigmas around age and time shift and others stay put. There’s no longer an expectation that everyone be married with babies by 22 any more as there was for my mother, yet we are all supposed to be settled into a set career at 40 and stick to that path, good or bad.

What complete nonsense.

My personal theory is that there are two distinct types of mid-life crisis and it’s easy to tell which one you are having, as one isn’t a crisis at all.

One is where you buy a Ferrari and have an affair with a 23 year old. You feel trapped yet you stay in the job you hate and lash out in other ways, trying to fill the growing gap between your day-to-day life and your soul.

The second is when you reach an age where you know you are ready to do your life’s work. You know what’s important to you and the change you want to see in the world. You want to be part of that change in some small way and all the work and life experience you have had up to this point has made you ready and able to do so.

For some people this means a dramatic leap into the unknown, for others it means a slow transition to protect the security of your finances or your family. There are many ways to transition into doing your life’s work and none of them are a crisis. 

INTERVIEW: EMILY WILKINSON 

Describe your project. What excites you about it? What difference has it made to your life, your community or the world?       

Mindful Maps is an artistic practice which aims to help others navigate their journey through visual articulation. It is an umbrella for the image-making work I do with groups and individuals, and a space to talk about key topics like creative learning, wellbeing and mindfulness.

Image-making is a very powerful tool for change, and one I think should be accessible to as many people as possible. Drawing is an emotionally expressive medium, and helps people to feel what they’re talking about.

My practice has already changed so much since I started Mindful Maps in June 2011. Having begun to build a community around it the work is more responsive to what people are actually asking for.

I’m getting more and more into community work which involves some aspect of either regeneration or ecology. I love working where communities are creatively empowered to change their immediate environment and everyday lives.

In terms of my own life, starting a practice has helped me find my voice. I knew there was something unique I could offer but until I found this form I couldn’t articulate it.

What were you afraid of before you started or as you began?

My single biggest fear has always been not being able to earn a living making art. This held me back from doing a lot of things (and still does sometimes).

I think the other fear I experienced was being afraid to speak out. It’s always scary doing something on your own.

What helped you to get past these fears? What tips would you give others? 

Finding mentors and people who support me has been vital. A network of support makes everything a lot less lonely. This also helps with speaking out and finding your voice. Positive relationships with people who want to hear you speak your truth make you resilient and more confident. 

Changing my attitude to money was essential, seeing the value in what you have to offer is what makes others value you.

Regular meditation has made me much less fearful in general. I would definitely recommend it. Also for anyone who wants to grow creatively but is scared of doing that, I recommend Julia Cameron’s book ‘The Artist’s Way.’

 

Emily Wilkinson is 29 years old and lives in London

where she runs Mindful Maps

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN BUCKLEY

Describe your project. What excites you about it? What difference has it made to your life, your community or the world?

My friend Katharina Frosch and I started a small urban farm in Berlin in Spring 2011, called Stadtgarten, which is German for ‘city garden.’

At first we wanted to sell vegetables with the help of a website, but many others wanted to contribute which meant spending lots of time coordinating. We are working on a web tool this year to make it easy for us all to be responsible together for running the farm – an app where our farmers can find or post user-friendly to-dos, and record stats about our activities for the public to learn from online.

The idea came about because both of us used our backgrounds – as a web designer I thought of how a web tool could help a farm, and Katharina brought her knowledge as an innovations economist to designing a community-led system in the garden.

Personally, I find the farm seriously great on several levels. I’m in much better shape over the summer. After eight years of work behind a computer, I can escape outside and work with my hands. It’s also rewarding to test out an idea I believe in.

What were you afraid of and what helped you to get past these fears?

The risk of setting out on our own and worry that we might be overestimating the need for Stadtgarten to exist. As populations increase and energy gets more expensive, food security will be a greater issue with a need to grow food closer to where it is consumed.  My fears of starting out are tempered by staying aware of the big picture.

What tips would you give others? 

If you look at every great project or business that actually matters in the long run, you realize that making money was always a side effect. Finding a need in the real world and being passionate about it is a better starting point than setting out to make money.

It might be tempting to jump head first into a new project in an area completely alien to your own experience, but find ways to ‘bridge’ your past skills. Combining otherwise unlike skills or experiences is a good recipe for innovative ideas.  

You may think you’re alone when you get started, but as you get going and move through the first difficult phase, your project gets ‘gravity’ and people of like minds will find you.

 

Justin Buckley lives in Berlin. You can read more

about Stadtgarten on the garden’s blog. 

Do you have a project you’d like to share on this blog? Just answer three little questions here.

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Are you ready to breathe life into your own ideas? 

I work with people who have an idea they are passionate to start but feel intimidated to take the plunge. Find out more at gwenknowles.com

I have a confession to make. I’m a closet changemaker. I want to start a movement to set people’s ideas in motion. I want to give everyone the permission and the confidence to step up and make a difference in their own individual ways. 

I suspect that some of you are closet changemakers too. What’s the change you long to make in the world? What movement would you instigate if you could work out where to start? Who are the people you’d like to call into action? 

This blog was my way of opening the closet door, but I’m still standing firmly in that closet looking out. I convinced myself to wait until I had a bigger audience, a more structured idea of how things will go forwards, a stronger confidence in my ability to step up as a leader. But I’m learning that all of these things are excuses to stay in the closet, and none of them are needed to start.

It starts with a conversation. A conversation with others that feel the same way that you do. This is your tribe. “It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe – a shared interest and a way to communicate,” explains Seth Godin in his book ‘Tribes.’ There may be only three of you to begin with, but each time one of you communicates your idea to those around you, more like-minded people will join in.

It starts with an active choice to lead your tribe, simply by choosing to lead the conversation. “Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate,” says Seth, “They establish the foundation for people to make connections.”

What’s the conversation you want to start? Reach out today to a few other people and start your conversation right now. 

INTERVIEW: ZOE ARCH

Describe your project. What excites you about it? What difference has it made to your life, your community or the world?

SW Craft Club was a small idea of mine, basically a blog to have a moan about the lack of information about craft courses where I live in South London. But lo and behold I wasn’t the only person having a moan and the blog has picked up quite a bit of traffic since it launched 18 months ago.

London is huge and specialist communities are small.  The blog has helped me to tap into and find those communities and I’ve made lots of new friends.

Whilst the blog is hard work, day to day I’m a lot less stressed as I make loads of things at home to blog about and it’s fun.

What were you afraid of before you started or as you began?

I’m dyslexic, writing is not my thing, but making and images are. The idea of people reading my words makes me cringe, even now. But my motto is that I’m never going to get better unless I work at it.

One of my personal fears was being left behind with social media and starting the blog has helped to introduce me to twitter, facebook groups, Pinterest, Google+ etc and I’ve really enjoyed using these tools. They have played a huge part in promoting the blog and networking with people.

What helped you get past these fears? What tips would you give others?

When I am asking people or companies for help or information I always tell myself ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’

The tip I would pass onto anyone who has fears are, If you don’t try you’ll never know.

Zoe Arch lives in London and invites you to get a craft fix at http://swcraftclublondon.blogspot.com/

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Do you have a project you’d like to share on this blog? Just answer three little questions here.

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Are you ready to breathe life into your own ideas? 

I work with people who have an idea they are passionate to start but feel intimidated to take the plunge. I am currently offering a reduced rate through February. Find out more at gwenknowles.com

Take a moment to imagine how far you can take your idea… how many sales you’ll make? How many peoples’ lives you will touch? How big your audience will be?

Now think about everything there is you’ll need to do to get there. I don’t know about you but I can barely breathe from the enormity of it all. I can’t possibly do all of that. A lot of it is way beyond my current abilities. It stops me in my tracks. 

Visualising how far you can take your project is important to keep you charged up and excited about it, and you can only plan how to get somewhere if you know where you are going. Yet studies have shown that time spent only visualizing your end success leads to a drop in immediate productivity. Too much daydreaming about your future success and your big dream will always be just a dream.

Conversely, studies show that time spent visualising yourself doing the daily work necessary to get there leads to an increase in real actions towards your goal. Take a few minutes each day to visualise yourself tackling the tasks that are ahead of you in the coming weeks and months. Imagine yourself capable and willing to get the work done, in order to turn your dreams into actions. 

INTERVIEW: VICKY FABBRI

Describe your project. What excites you about it? What difference has it made to your life, your community or the world?

I run Electric Fleapit, a film club in East London that puts on film screening events, has a website with reviews and organises meet-ups at independent and heritage cinemas in London.

I want people to engage with films on a different level to the experience of watching it isolated at home or at a cinema. I want there to be a shared event experience, discussion and education that is both social and interactive.

I don’t know whether this will ever be anything huge (it’s a sideline to a full time job), but it’s nice to see a group of regulars who seem to like what we are doing.  

What were you afraid of before you started or as you began? 

As with all events-based work, I was afraid no one would turn up. With my blog, I worried that no one would be interested in what I had to say!

I have new things planned for this year that I am nervous won’t work, so I’m not sure fears ever change.

What helped you to get past these fears?

I felt it was important to grow a network before doing public events so I ran events privately in my house to a small group of people I knew that liked film. People invited people they knew and the whole thing grew, and with it further opportunities.  

What tips would you give others? 

If you start small, you can monitor people’s interest and tailor what you are doing, it also minimises your financial risk.  Let it grow organically. Take one step at a time. 

Vicky Fabbri is 33 years old and lives in London, England.

You can find out more about her film club at Electric Fleapit.

Do you have a project you’d like to share on this blog? Just answer three little questions here.

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Are you ready to breathe life into your own ideas? 

I work with people who have an idea they are passionate to start but feel intimidated to take the plunge. I am currently offering a reduced rate through February. Find out more at gwenknowles.com