back to articles

Are You A Wild Woman Entrepreneur?

an article by
Gaye Abbott

I became curious the other day and actually went to the dictionary to look up the word entrepreneur. If I was calling myself one I thought it best to know what our culture said that it was! Well, let's just say that all the definitions had "risk" and "chance" in them in regards to building a business or launching a venture. I found myself asking these questions: Who makes up definitions? What boxes of perception do they come from? Who makes the "rules"? More deeply, do we buy into the definitions, thus defining our selves and the actions we take in our life? Or, do we create our own meanings based on our unique make-up and the experiences that we create?

The "wild woman" as I know her through other women, and my own life experience, does not try to keep bending, contorting, or folding herself into shapes that are not hers. Have you experienced "being yourself" only to be judged or exiled by others? We soon find out that if we comply with what others want it can cause us to lose ourselves and the expression that is authentically ours. The "risk" that I see a "wild woman" entrepreneur take is one in which she simply dives in, or steps off the cliff edge, and accepts that she does not know what will happen next. This risk will then take her back to her intuitive nature - that "wild" knowing that rests inside. This is home base.

Then, what happens when you are at the edge of the cliff, or the rim of the deep pool? Is there a place in you that stops venturing forward based on what has just preceeded the next action you are about to take? Today in my rather strenuous yoga class I had one of those days where everything was "off". In fact, I had never quite experienced an entire practice where everything that I attempted to do as best I could ended up falling out of balance or stopped short of "what I thought" was my potential. I watched my mind take hold after awhile and put its foot on the brake pedal saying - NO! You can't do that! Don't even try it? You've never been able to do it before, and look what you have been doing so far! Well, based on my experience at this point in the class, and based on the fact that I have never yet gotten down into a toe stand from a tree pose, my mind had lots of fertile manure to have been "correct". BUT, this could have been the moment when I actually did accomplish this part of the practice. However, I didn't try. I didn't get to find out what might have been possible. It could have been a fall on my butt, or it could have been a toe stand, or something else entirely new and innovative -in other words my potential in just that moment. Although I didn't take that leap, and wasn't willing to accept the "I don't know", this experience was deeply expanding. This is the conscious territory that a "wild woman entrepreneur" lives and breathes in. She is willing to be "the exile" for periods of time in order to rediscover herself.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. says it beautifully:

"Let us attend here to the inner issues of the exile, for when one develops adequate strength - in being oneself and finding what one belongs to, one can then influence the outer community and cultural consciousness in masterful ways. What is moderate strength? It is when the internal mother who mothers you isn't one hundred percent confident about what to do next. Seventy-five percent confident will do nicely, seventy-five percent is a goodly amount. Remember, we say that a flower is blooming whether it is in half, three-quarters, or full bloom. " (pg, 174, Women Who Run With the Wolves)

If you are a "Wild Woman Entrepreneur" let us hear your story. Let us know your voice. Allow us to walk awhile with you on your journey.

Gaye Abbott
www.WildlyFreeWoman.com
Women Who Thrive, Change the World!
info@WildlyFreeWoman.com

P.S. Coming soon opportunities to connect with other WildlyFreeWomen through a series of teleconferences, membership, and MasterMinding. The web is being spun!

I hope you enjoyed this article. You can sign up for Gaye's newsletter at her site, linked above. Let me know when you stumble upon something you think our group of women would enjoy.

With much love,


The Heart Specialist™

back to articles