Fashion Business Owner Musings: Are We All Too Impatient for Success?

07.02.2021 | Fashion Business Advice

Fashion Business Advice

I’m an impatient person.  I always have been.  Ask my parents, my partner, or my sisters.  It’s pretty extreme. I huff, puff, roll my eyes, and get all exasperated when something is not happening fast enough. It’s a horribly unattractive quality in a person. I know this. And I’ve tried to get better. But it’s not easy.

Obviously, this quality also tumbles over into my business.  And it’s not good.

You know that feeling when you’re like…

“I’ve been working my ass off for (fill in what seems to be an outrageous length of time) and I’m still not (making the money I want, building the team I want, getting the recognition I want . . . )”  And the list goes on.

It’s a terrible feeling. And one that causes us to stress out.

It’s understandable. After all, we’re all impatient for things to start working. We all want to feel like we’ve accomplished something that we’ve been working so damn hard to get.

But I’ve learned that being impatient is not going to help one bit. In fact, it’s actually going to hurt.

When we’re impatient, we’re stressed out. (Don’t even get me started on how I stress out about being stressed out.)

When we’re impatient we’re not able to identify opportunity.

When we’re impatient we damage relationships.

When we’re impatient we are often less creative.

When we’re impatient we lose the ability to enjoy the ride.

These things are all so important to our happiness, our livelihood, and our success. And our own impatience for things to be “working” is keeping this happiness, livelihood, and success just out of reach.

We’re too busy wishing that certain things would happen to realize that other just-as-great things are happening instead. And when that’s the case, time rolls by and one day we realize that all this time we’ve been so impatient for “success” that we’ve missed all the greatness that happened on the road to success.

Things like:

  • Getting into a new store. Instead of focusing on how you wish it were 5 new stores, become excited about the one new store.
  • The new comments on your social media platforms. People are engaging with your brand. That’s a good thing.
  • Bringing on an awesome new intern. Finding someone who is passionate about your business is thrilling, flattering, and motivating.
  • Producing a trunk show. It’s a lot of work to put together an event. Focus on all you accomplished in order to bring it to life.
  • Setting up your accounting system. Seems dull (it is) but it’s also something you needed to do and therefore has taken you one step closer to feeling good about your fashion business.

These are just examples. My point is this: there are a million little successes that we reach everyday on our way to the bigger goals. If we don’t start acknowledging them, we will always feel a certain amount of impatience for things to start “happening.”

And going through life with a continued sense of waiting seems like a really crappy way to spend our time on this earth.

So let’s stop being impatient for what’s to come, and instead let’s start being excited about, grateful for, and motivated by what’s happening every day.

Lots of love and encouragement,

Nicole Giordano

Nicole is the founder of StartUp FASHION, an online resource and community supporting for independent designers around the world with building their businesses. A deep love for the craft of fashion paired with an adamant belief that success is defined by the individual, led her to found StartUp FASHION, where she helps independent designers and makers screw the traditional fashion business rules, create their own paths, and build businesses they truly love. More than anything else, she’s in the business of encouragement and works every day to remind makers and designers that they have something special to offer the world and that they can, in fact, do this thing!

14 comments
  1. Jojo

    Exactly what I need right now.!..i need to put back my shoes on and start walking..i might be covering distance without knowing it yet i am complaining that the journey is too far.thanks for the words of encouragement…

    • Casey Cline

      That’s a great way to look at it, Jojo!

  2. Kristina

    Your posts always seem resonate with me in a timely manner. It’s like you’re talking directly to me. Thank you for the emotional and practical support. It is a gift!

    • Nicole Giordano

      I’m so happy to hear that, Kristina! It means so much to me when designers tell me that, it reminds us that there are real people out there, reading our articles and finding inspiration from them. It’s the BEST feeling!

  3. brooke breazeale

    Thank you SO much for this Nicole! This is 100% where I am right now and very cognizant that my impatient ways are causing so much unneeded stress and angst. Your words are comforting and such a good reminder to help calm and focus. You are a gift!

    Brooke

    • Nicole Giordano

      Oh Brooke, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and let me know. 🙂

  4. Debra

    Thank you for this reminder Nicole. I LOVE this article! No matter where one is on her journey, this is sage advice. The truth is, we never reach “the destination.” It is ALL about the journey and always will be because that is all there is. This is something we tend to forget!

  5. Ashwini Ramanisankar

    Very true thoughts and well expressed! I completely believe in this and many times I realize that we have had “success” when we look back!

  6. Alex

    Nicole,

    I love reading your blog posts!

    This one is particularly relevant to me right now 🙂

    Thanks heaps!

  7. Katie

    I really love your newsletters , i always get excited when i see them in my mailbox 🙂 thanks for sharing ur experiences i can relate to them all !

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