I am pretty blessed. I have a few friends that have weathered depression, divorce, disease, and displacement with me. I have friends who have celebrated graduations, successes, achievements, and breakthroughs with me. I am blessed with friends who loved me enough to provide constructive critique, invest in businesses, connect me with resources, and tell me that I look a hot mess in clothes that didn’t compliment me or my body.
I am blessed. But when I reflected on what makes us stick together, I realized that we consistently say one thing to each other– “I know you can do it, but what’s your plan”.
It’s just ONE sentence, but the statement conveys the deep respect that we have for each other and for each other’s talents. We believe in each other. We trust each other’s opinions, expertise, experience, and ability to follow-through. Most of all, we hold each other accountable, and as a result; we help each other.
We share our experiences, we share our money, we share our knowledge, and we share our connections. We share because we are vulnerable; we admit what we don’t know, and we are always open to receive from each other. We all have vastly different personalities, and we are in different industries, but we freely capitalize off of each other’s distinct perspective of the world. And our unique perspectives have helped all of us grow personally and professionally because our collective intelligence is hard to match. Our shared knowledge provides great exposure and insight that we would never have alone.
This is what I know for sure. My true friends are not only my cheerleaders; they are in the game with me. They are blocking, passing, shooting, and coaching me so that I can win the game. They love me enough to make sure that I do everything possible to do and to be everything that I proclaim that I want to do to and to be.
They see my tears, but then also offer me templates. They see me cry, but they will also hand me a calculator. They will affirm me, but also want to understand my assets. They will let me share, but they will request a spreadsheet. They will listen to my vision, but also ask me about demographics, timelines, funding, and ROI. They are in it to win it with me because they believe in me, they see me, they respect me, and they love me.
They don’t exist on the sidelines of my dreams; they are participants, teammates, prayer warriors, funding sources, collaborators, investors, motivators, teachers, counselors, experts, and reputation builders. Yes, they are hard on me, but I am equally hard on them because I love them.
Who do you have in your life that provides encouragement AND expertise, reason AND resources, constructive criticism AND connections, relief AND results, goods AND goals, friendship AND feedback? Who is in your life that loves you enough to want to see/hear/help with your life plan?
You have to know to grow ,
Excerpt from my book ” I Have Learned A Few Things.”
** You can purchase the book on my website or whatever books are sold.
