I’m very excited to write this one, because the fact that I’ve become so unwavering in my belief of making portrait52 work is Marie Forleo’s doing. Amongst others, of course, there are quite a few people contributing to my confidence and trust. My wife, my friends, who believe in me and have become part of the project because they see it’s worth. My own persistent dream of being one of those tenacious, persevering people who help saving the world through their work. And my ambition to prove all those pessimists wrong who believe there’s no hope for mankind and we’re definitely going to drive most of this planet’s beings into extinction. And eventually ourselves, because there’s no thriving life on Earth without biodiversity.
But what is so special about Marie Forleo that I give her more credit for my development than all the other positive influencers in my life? What’s made me talk about her so much that my wife already cringes when she just hears the name of ‘Marie’?
For those of you who haven’t heard of Marie Forleo (she’s maybe not as famous as Michelle Obama or Chris Martin, Pink or Steve Jobs), here’s a short introduction. Marie helps people build businesses. She does a lot more, but that’s how I learned about her. I needed someone to help me build my business. Someone who could provide me with the knowledge, the motivation, the tenacity and the discipline I knew I needed in order to pull off a big project like portrait52. I found all that and more.
I’ve been a part time freelancer all my life, combining the safety of employment with the freedom of being my own boss. Well, at least part time being my own boss. Ok, some part of the part time, I still got bossed around by some of my customers.
The freelancing time has varied over time, but employment has kept me from going all in. We all know how alluring comfort can be. It’s that zone we’re so afraid of leaving, because what’s outside of it may be full of excitement and promises of overcoming boredom, binge-watching habits and feelings of FOMO. Promises of individual growth and a certain degree of fame. Yes, fame, we’ve all dreamed about it once in a while, why else would we post all those pictures of ourselves to show the world how interesting we are? I’m counting myself in, the ‘we’ is definitely inclusive. No judgement.
Back to that comfort zone I was talking about. We actually do step outside of it quite often, but we like to keep these steps small. We learn new things, apply for a promotion, go out on dates, tell our partners what we don’t like in our relationships... We make our comfort zone larger, bit by bit. Because we love space, it gives us the illusion of freedom. So does comfort.
Marie Forleo helped me leave my comfort zone for good. She made me believe that I can achieve what I want if I’m willing to do all it takes. She taught me to step outside my comfort zone constantly until I didn’t need it anymore. Until the trials and errors, successes and failures became my new zone of safety.
You can find out more about this amazing woman and what she can offer on her website marieforleo.com, her YouTube channel Marie TV and the usual social media suspects.
P.S. I do falter sometimes, but it’s all the more rewarding when I pull myself up and keep going. It’s not a sprint...
