Business Inspiration from an Unlikely Source

Being a small business owner definitely can have it’s ups and downs. Those who speak of being your own boss have probably never owned a business. True, you make your own decisions, but every customer is your boss and every decision has consequences.

It’s easy to doubt yourself and worry as to whether or not your making the right decisions. So when I was working out at the YMCA I was surprised at how a trainer’s words rang true for me.

A young man was working with the trainer. The trainer loaded the barbells and the boy said. “I can’t lift that.”

The trainer looked at him and said, “You haven’t even tried. How do you know you can’t do it?”

The boy began to complain that the trainer had loaded too much weight on the barbell and he could never lift it.

The trainer said, “Trust me. Just try.”

Reluctantly, the boy laid down on the bench and with the trainer spotting him, lifted the weight 12 times.

“I told you you could do it,”the trainer said. The boy still looked amazed.

I’ve been in that same place. Wondering if I should go after a contract. Could I really fulfill the terms of a particular project? And I didn’t have any spotter helping me.

But every time I accomplish another goal or finish another project, I flex my muscle and say, I did it.

Being a small business owner is about doing the heavy lifting and whenever I have doubts, I just hear the trainer’s words. “How do you know you can’t do it if a