September 2023
HOW TO DISCOVER
MY INNER SUCCESS THROUGH LIFEEXPERIENCE By Elona Lopari
I didn’t know until my late 30’s. I was brought up in the American dream after leaving Albania. It was the happy-ever-after scenario. I got my degree and climbed the corporate ladder. I am passionate about learning, and I was happy in the corporate retail industry, but then it all changed, and their values didn’t align with mine.
I
didn’t know what I was going to do when I left, but having witnessed my husband’s entrepreneurial journey, I started Executive Coaching for female leaders. I still felt like I was in the corporate environment, but I felt like a child needing to explore the world and looking further afield. That’s when I discovered my gift for business. Leadership is very attractive in my mind, and I positioned myself in the business place helping people discover their 7-figure salaries. Success for me externally was incredible, but I needed to discover my inner success through life-experience. Life is its own school, so I needed to bring ‘life school’ into my work and do more good in the world, but at the same time,
drive my own purpose-built company. There was a lot of fear and uncertainty – like any leap in life outside of our comfort zones. I started to expose myself to different mentors and connect to like-minded people. Then I hired a “personal mentor”. We have to be surrounded by support, even as solo entrepreneurs and therefore, I understood how to leverage off collaboration. I started to see my business grow and eventually, the side hustle paid off. I got my “feet wet” and started to see the traction of how to invest time and energy into a new type of network and presence. When I felt I had good footing, stability and income, I donated all my time to my business.
My capability and self-worth journey was a huge aspect in believing in my brand. Loneliness in business was very jarring and something I needed to learn quickly by shifting my mindset. I needed to redefine ‘who I was’ to figure out what my values were. I had to recalibrate my priorities, and the life I was trying to create. Every day I wanted to quit my business in my first year, because the challenge was huge, and I am not ashamed to say that. Most people think the same – because building a business can be terrifying. However, leaning into that fear actually made me understand neuroscience, which altered my confidence and former practices.
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