The reality for me is that I want acceptance and validation.  Is that the same for you?  I really do wonder.  At Moxie… the only thing that has kept me going is the gratitude and praise that I receive from our Moxie fans.  I continue to be overwhelmed with gratitude when women send me photos of themselves wearing my work boots or showing me the shoe box with the boots still inside.   I dreamed about that moment.  We have really pretty tissue paper and round hang tags. I wanted women to open their shoe box and it be like unwrapping a present on your birthday.  That one woman who is now wrapped with moxie on the inside and out.  I pray that my products will keep her safe and give her the inner strength to give it all she has when she is wearing her Moxies.  The definition of moxie is the ability to face fear with spirit and courage.

I have had many partners over the years – all men.  I am so grateful to the men in my life as they are my champions.  They have helped me pay the bills, they have funded me, advised me, they have bought from me, they have competed with me and have never asked me to change.  But I have learned through experience one key difference.  One of my partners said “I don’t care about your emotions.”  This was said to me while I was at an airport, on my way to Vancouver and I just left two crying kids behind at home.  That sentence was the greatest gift I ever received.  It gave me permission to rewrite my values and make some rules in my life that would guide my own definition of success.  I didn’t get on the flight that day.  I turned around, came home and rewrote my rules.

I have met many successful business leaders across Canada now.  It’s been eight years of networking, learning and building a business.  Many very successful people have shared their price to financial success.  Much of it has been the loss of relationships with those that should be the most important.  One friend’s son asked his Mom, “Did Dad really die and you just don’t want to tell me?” My friend spent so much time away from work that his son thought he was dead.  I won’t pay that price.  (He also went home that day and rewrote the rules)

The lesson learned is that you need to take care of yourself.  When someone shows you who they are, believe them. The business doesn’t care if you are healthy, happy or dying inside.  AND believe me, there are times I have been dying inside.  Hurtful words, behaviour and dismissive attitudes are detrimental in every sense of our being.

I love what I have created at Moxie Trades.  I am honoured with every tweet, Facebook like and purchase. I will take the emotional hits.  They are in fact a bigger price that the financial hits.  I know – I have had both kinds. Time is not replaceable.  Do-overs when it comes to family are not easy. Money however, can be made another day and another way.

Let happy be the new success.  It should be now and forever moving forward.