Nobody Picked Me

I spent my life waiting for someone to pick me. 

That was true long before business. Gym class, when the captains chose teams. Friend groups. I stood there waiting to be chosen, and the power always lived somewhere outside of me. 

I wonder if you know that feeling too.

In 2010, I was 50 years old, with 17 years of corporate America behind me, when I started my VA business, RocketGirl Solutions. 

When you have a job, someone else pulls the levers. Someone else decides your salary. Someone else decides your schedule. Someone else decides what your time is worth. During my corporate career it never once occurred to me that there was another way. 

The day I started my business, I saw that my hands were on every one of those levers. My rate. My clients. My hours. My services. My future. 

It scared me half to death. It was also the most powerful I had ever felt. 

And here's the part nobody tells you. 

The power doesn't show up when the clients do. It shows up the moment you decide. 

I hear from women every week who are waiting. Waiting for a sign. Waiting to feel certain. Waiting for someone with authority to look at them and say, "Yes, you. You'd be good at this." 

And I hear it from women already running their businesses too: waiting for permission to raise their rates, to send an announcement, to call themselves a business owner. 

I understand the waiting. It feels careful. It feels responsible. 

But every day you spend waiting for someone else to decide, you're handing away the one thing this business gave me. My personal power. 

Nobody is going to pick you, and that's a good thing. 

Now go put your hands on the levers.