How many times have you attended a movie, a theatre
performance, an art show, a conference, or other major event and simply just
soaked everything in and enjoyed it rather than stopping to consider, what
really went on behind the scenes to make it happen? Having worked at several
events and shows, including my dad’s art shows, I know firsthand the kind of
energy, time, preparation, and to-do lists that one needs to make an idea turn
into an end result.
Depending on how much you know about me personally as a shop owner, you may or may not know that my “behind the scenes” is operating daily in a foreign language that is not my own to make the business run. If you know that much about me already, what you may not know is that over the past seven years, I have been the creative force behind the scenes, while my husband has been the “German voice” on the front end of things. With the curtain dropped and an up close look at our behind the scenes, the reality of it is that I am essentially a “one-man-show” with only partial abilities.
When things were smaller, my husband’s work life was not as demanding, and there were no kids in the picture, running the
one-man-show was doable. But now things are much bigger, my husband’s work life
has doubled, there are TWO kids in the picture, and my passion
to sew and create, the exact thing that drove me to start my online shop in the first
place, must constantly take the
backburner to everything else. The behind the scenes discussion has been going
on for quite some time… should I keep it up? Should I go another direction? If
not this, then what? Despite all the hovering questions, doubts, and unknowns,
I have decided to leap.
I have no landing plans, no safety nets, or
predictable outcomes, but I am looking forward to my after-the-dust-has-settled
moment. I don’t want to make claims of all the things I plan to do, or what I
hope to have accomplished when it’s all over with, but the outlook is positive.
The specifics are not etched in stone, but my general direction is clear. I am
excited and feeling envigorated now about the “what ifs” that I will finally
have the time to pursue.
One small change is that what I plan to
say in the future will be in my own language. Such a statement should not be
taken as a shutting out or shunning statement against the very customers that
have supported me over the past 7 years, quite the contrary, it is for you that
I write this. But my plans are borne
out of a deep inward yearning to function without the restrictive “verbal handcuffs” that come with
operating in a foreign language.
In any case, I hope you will join me as one chapter closes, and I begin writing the next!
