My 20K Lesson

What can I say? I have expensive taste when it comes to learning obvious lessons...

The most important (+ expensive) lesson I’ve learned closing my surf shop, Saltwater Fix, after six years is MY perception of other’s perceptions of me was + is all wrong. I’m holding my own hand as I say this - for better or worse - most people do not care at all about what I’m doing. If I’m lucky, I may briefly cross someone’s mind for a few seconds when they scroll through social media and see something I’ve posted but that’s about it. Unfortunately, understanding how very unimportant me + my (former) business are in the context of other people’s lives came at a high price – six years of blood, sweat, tears + thousands of dollars down the drain. Fortunately, it was a lesson I needed to learn, and it was only going to happen the hard way.

There is a large amount of freedom (+ relief if I’m being honest) that comes with understanding how few people are watching let alone picking apart what you or I do. It took me burning out + shutting down the shop to realize that all the anxiety I had surrounding content creation, reaching out to other businesses to partner, and putting my products on display for the world to see was pointless. Here I was basing my business plans around the assumption that everyone was watching all the time and waiting for me to embarrass myself. I was putting myself at the center of other people’s narratives which is just cringy – plain + simple.

Yesterday, I uploaded my first blog post to Substack. It was a post from a few years ago – 3 Signs You’re Maturing As A Surfer. It’s a solid post which still very much rings true today. If this was one year ago, I would have needed it to be the perfect kick off post that explained why I decided to start writing captured in the context of some beautiful, prolific ocean metaphor. It wasn’t that type of post. And, for once, I didn’t care. What I did + do care about is getting started. I didn’t have the words yesterday, so I reused some words I came up with months ago which enabled me to do the most important thing – take the 1^st step.

In some ways, it is important to care about how you think the work you put into the world will be perceived. It enables you to think + create at higher levels. However, the minute you start inserting yourself into the center of everyone else’s thoughts, you’ve lost the plot. Trust me. Like everything in life, there’s a balance that needs to be struck. And the only way you can start figuring out what that balance looks like for you is by getting started. So, let’s get a move on it - cringe + all.

Wishing You Waves For Days (unless you’re a sailor or land locked),

K