Roadblock on your road to glory?

I recently received an email from a young lady who has set up her own charitable endeavour and has hit some pretty substantial roadblocks. She was unsure where to go from here and was after some advice.

My first piece of advice: EVERY endeavour hits roadblocks.

Some prime examples:

• The Frisbee took nine years to “take off” (excuse the pun) – invented in 1948 it wasn’t a hit till 1957.
• Velcro inventor and engineer George de Mestral spent a decade perfecting his invention before he made a sale.
• Karl Elsener invented something you probably have in your home today – a Swiss army knife – but it took him 13 years to find a market for his product and he was bailed out by friends and family several times over.

In my own life even just looking at one area – financing – I’ve been:

• Knocked back for finance on my first business.
• Knocked back for finance on my first investment.
• Knocked back by a potential investor.

It’s not the presence of the roadblock that’s the issue, it’s how you choose to address it.

Bruce Lee speaks about being “like water” – if water encounters an obstacle it just flows around it. How can you flow? How can you adapt? What questions do you need to ask yourself to move around your roadblock?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.