Despite the fact that according to this lovely Who’s your animal founder? test, my animal is a cheetah, I would be lying if I said that I don’t put myself down every other day, feeling like I’m making steps forward at a turtle speed.
However, the other day I sat myself down and reviewed my 2025 so far, and I had a couple of realisations:
I actually have made progress
What has stopped me from recognising it as such, is that it hasn’t (yet!) tied itself to a financial outcome
In the last few months, in various order, I:
Made new friends in a new city and built a new network from scratch
Took part in my first art exhibition
Left a long-term relationship that was no longer working
Went from being intimidated by networking settings, to chatting people up, reaching out, and grabbing coffee and/or collaborating with them
Was recognised in public as the LinkedIn Tarot girl (yay!)
Ran my first independent workshops
Got my German B1!
Started doing theatre again
Took myself seriously and attended various business coaching sessions and seminars (shoutout Ricardo and Stadt Leipzig!)
Gave Tarot readings both privately and at events, and people felt safe enough to be emotional with me
Am in the process of dealing with German bureaucracy in order to apply for a grant (whether I make it on time and can actually get it is of course another question).
I was looking at this list, and I realised: this is NOT nothing. And if we lived in a society that values personal growth more than money, I wouldn’t be putting myself down so easily.
Now, am I fishing for compliments and virtual pats on the shoulder? Perhaps. But what is really motivating me to write this week’s newsletter on this specific topic, is that I am sure I am not the only one who feels like they’re:
not being productive enough
not employing their time as efficiently as they should
not having all their ducks in a row (as in: “before I start, I need to have a perfect branding, the coolest website, a perfectly mapped strategy”, etc.)
But here’s what I think:
Financial progress, in the early stages, is very rarely fast.
Let’s ignore the phenomenon of online virality for a second (which is often a meteor anyway, easy come, easy go). You’re probably thinking about a freelancer, or a founder, that you’re comparing yourself to, and you’re thinking: “But they built a viable, self-sustaining business in six months — if I can’t accomplish that, it must mean that I am just not cut out for this.”
If you take a little time to speak with them, you’ll likely find out that the reason why it took them such a short time to go from quitting their job to earning a freelancing income, is that they spent the previous 1+ year(s) getting themselves ready, and (understandably) took the leap once they were reasonably sure they weren’t going to faceplant.
I don’t exclude that it may really take only 6 months to some people to ramp up, but then there’s other factors to consider. For instance, remember how I mentioned earlier how I went from feeling very shy and intimidated at networking events, to feeling confident and chat people up? It took me going to countless events and talking to dozens of people in order to develop this skill (which you’ll need if you want to run your own business). I started doing that properly only after the layoffs, once I had more time: lots of networking events are in Berlin and I don’t live there anymore. This is all to say, that it took me MONTHS, not mere days, to build it up. Perhaps the solopreneurs who make fast progress, have already worked on some skills, which you haven’t honed in on yet.
I guess what I’m trying to say is (and I know it sounds trite!): do not get discouraged.
I know first hand how frustrating slow progress can feel. But try to look at it this way: you’re making progress in a way that is sustainable for you. Unless you’re an adrenaline junkie — and I don’t mean this in a bad way, I wish I could be one — you don’t really want to go from 0 to 100 in the space of a week.
You’ll get where you need to be, in the time that works for you, and everyone’s timing is different. Hang in there!
Angelica / Maeveryn
or…
Also: launched your Substack 👏🏼