Inspiration - Bravery

Inspiration -  Bravery

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

The quote today comes from David Hackworth who says "Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid."

In my opinion, one of the bravest acts that I have ever performed is the one where I quit my relatively luscious job and in a ‘leap of faith’ and not much more, I started my own business.  That was in 2003.

I remember during the three months notice that I had given, people with whom I worked, coming up to me with looks of concern on their faces, because they thought I was either mad, had lost the plot, had fallen off the path and any other saying that anyone cares to substitute, can be inserted here.  I was absolutely steadfast in my reply which became a standard “I am stagnating here, this is my dream and I am going to do it.”

After a while the words just came out by themselves usually accompanied with a fixed smile on my face and eventually even I started believing what I was saying.

Inside though, was a completely different story!  I was sick to my stomach and as my body absorbed the additional stress, so it also reacted to it.  My hair started falling out, my stomach churned and often spurned whatever I had put in it, resulting in me rushing off to the loo to spew at length.  I, who had always had relatively low blood pressure (between  95 – 100/70 – 75), now had to contend with a reading that now soared to 150/100!  The noise in my ears sounded like the blood whooshing through my veins and I swear I could actually hear my heart beating.

Every morning when I jumped out of bed to start the new day, with smile firmly fixed in place, I wondered if I had indeed lost my mind along the way – I mean what was I actually thinking?

Yet at the end of every day, when I had survived being in the Business of Owning my own business, I realized that I was far stronger than I had ever given myself credit for.  I realised that, on the surface most people believed in me far more than I believed in myself, but that deep down below, somewhere in that space that we all have, where we instinctively know the truth when we hear it, that I was living my dream.  That I could achieve and would achieve anything that I put my mind to, simply by visualizing it and by going towards my goal – one step at a time.

So as I continue on this journey of mine, whenever I get scared of something, I remember the beginning of this particular chapter of my life and I know that I can do it.  I pat myself on the back for a job well done (even if it hasn’t been started yet) and start at the beginning, with my smile fixed firmly on my face and the words “this is my dream” on my lips and I know that I will succeed.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za