Building Your Foundation: The Work No One Sees, But The Work You Must Do
“I could totally do that.”
It was a naive sentiment I made when I saw the shiny finish of someone’s years of labor.
Little did I know the amount of work that actually goes into creating the shiny, everything-is-perfect exterior that I so ignorantly thought I could achieve with little to no effort.
There’s so much discipline involved and it takes a LOOOONNNNGG time before the “FUN” starts. (Even then, the fun is often hiding behind a long list of painstakingly monotonous tasks).
I’ll be honest with ya...
Foundational work is not very sexy.
Tell me if you’ve ever seen an Insta-famous influencer post a picture and you’ve thought:
“My work is just as good...”
Or you’ve seen a stylist get an award for their word and thought:
“I totally coulda done that…”
I get it. I see and hear it all the time. And although it’s not easy for me to admit it, I’ve totally thought those things too.
(I’m all about keeping it real with you and as much as I want to say that I’ve never thought about it, I definitely have.)
I’ve got a great analogy for you:
Have you ever walked past the foundational work of a new house or building going up?
There’s one right by my house that I walk by all the time and it feels like they’ve been working on it FOREVER but I barely have seen any real progress.
It also seems kinda useless to me… all this underground work that isn’t even going to be seen when the building is completed. What’s the point, right??
But you’re smarter than that. You know that without that foundational work, the building won’t stay standing for very long at all.
Sure, it might stay up for a little while, but when that first storm comes through you know it’s going to crash!
We know this is a fundamental step of building a building, but why don’t we realize it about our businesses?
You’ve got the talent and skill, absolutely, but what’s holding you up when a storm comes in? Have you laid down a solid foundation that you’re building upon? Or are you trying to make a skyscraper on a bed of sand?
You can’t skip the foundational work.
I don’t care how appealing the fun, shiny, sexy outcome is. If you skip the foundations you’re destined to crash and burn.
Take it from me. I burnt out and crashed HARD for over 2 years!
It may feel like you’re taking forever to build a foundation without seeing real progress, but it will be worth it when that first storm hits and you’re still standing the next day.
Promise.
Let’s be besties?
