“Adapting Through the Crisis” by Geoff Bokish
I have always heard about people having a mid-life crisis in their 40s or even 50s, but mine hit when I was just 30. Hopefully that isn’t a sign for how long my life will be. Unhappy with where my career was at, even though I had a relatively good job, I became obsessed with the idea of starting my own business and working for myself. As a husband and father of several small children, this was an especially overwhelming thought. What if I failed? Did I dare take them down this uncertain path with me? I nearly talked myself out of it multiple times, but ultimately, with the support of my loving wife, went all in. After spending about a year planning and organizing my new business, I quit my job and began a new chapter as my own boss. I could probably write a few different “Adapt and Overcome” stories just from the things that had to be overcome before I was ever even ready to quit my job, but I wanted to focus this particular story around the first year of being in business.
The company I started was centered around social media marketing. I had pitched my business plan to several entrepreneurs I knew and had received extremely positive feedback. I was confident that I had a great idea, and I was going to be incredibly successful in this endeavor. Failure was not an option for me, and I was convinced my idea was nearly failure-proof.
Well, as you have probably already guessed, my initial business model, everything it was designed to do to make money, was an epic failure, and never brought in a single dollar of revenue. The decision to quit my job and start my own business; however, was a great success and one of the best decisions I ever made. You might be asking yourself, “How can this be?” Simply put, because I was willing to adapt and overcome.
Right from the very start I discovered that most of the business owners I was soliciting my new service to had plenty of other needs than my gimmicky social media nonsense. And they would ask me if I could offer those other services. And do you know what I told them? Of course I could! Initially almost every job that I took on was completely out of my skillset. In fact, the very first gig offered to me was to help design a brand new product for an industry I knew nothing about. Up to this point I had never designed anything before, and had never even used Adobe Illustrator, which was required to facilitate this job. This did not stop me though, and I spent as much time as possible learning everything I could about this industry, product design, and Illustrator. I also asked others for help, and ultimately delivered a great product to the client. This was the first of many, many opportunities like this. A few examples of other projects I was asked to do include: building websites, designing an entire magazine, managing an advertising sales team, home inspections, logo design, and so many other things I had never done before. It was a crazy time, and looking back I am honestly amazed at the scope of some of the gigs I picked up and how I was able to manage them.
There is a saying I’ve always loved, which states, “God cannot steer a parked car.” This is a universal principle, whether you hold to a belief in a higher power or not. You’ll never know what you could have accomplished if you never make an effort. You cannot steer your own car to a better life or to overcome your struggles, if you never pull out of the driveway. In my case, I believe 100% that the Lord guided me through this and many other challenges in my life, but it first required me to get moving and take the initial step.
The skills I picked up freelancing have forever changed my life. I have opportunities today that only exist because of the experiences and struggles I went through during this period of my life. I had to be willing to abandon my initial business model and adapt to the opportunities before me. It would have been really easy to tell potential clients that I did not offer the services they needed and stick to my original plan, but ultimately I believe that would have been the wrong decision. My success and growth came because I was willing to adapt and overcome.
– Geoff Bokish