I am one of those very fortunate individuals who has worked for some truly incredible people.  Each person I have worked for has taught me life lessons I make use of to this day, and I am grateful for all I have learnt over the years.

Of course, it was with some trepidation that, nearly seven years ago, an inspirational business person I worked for encouraged me to sail away from safe harbour, and go out into the deep blue yonder known as “self-employment”.   This sentence brings me to one of my favourite quotes by none other than the great author, Paulo Coelho – “The boat is safe in the harbour, but this is not the purpose of a boat”.

Sometimes in life, as I believe we all know, we need to break free from the comforts of familiarity, and enter unchartered waters, knowing there will be sunny shores we will see, but also knowing that those unchartered waters, as tame as they may seem, are housing dangers, such as sharks and other beings, capable of causing great havoc as we traverse and zig zag our way to the next port.

Before you all start to panic, no, this piece is not about sailing, or water, or, for that matter, Paulo Coelho.  What I am trying to highlight though, is that just as there are dangers once the boat leaves the harbour, so too are there dangers when one runs one’s own business, all in the name of that great success we strive for, and that sense of achievement at having attained our dreams.

Until recently, my experiences with my clients had been nothing other than completely blissful.  I realise now how very lucky I have been.  And so, when I jumped head on into a creative project that filled me with more excitement than being asked out on a date at the not so tender age of forty, my world was consumed with thoughts of this event, how it would run, and how much fun I would be having with the profits.  In my mind, I had hit event platinum, and every single business traffic light I cast my eyes upon instantly turned from red to green.

Positive thoughts and words swirled around my head and I truly believed for those weeks that I was the great untouchable.

And so, you can imagine my surprise when, without notice, the creative project was suddenly whipped away, for reasons only the skipper knew.

My rudder disappeared, my sails dropped, and my boat engine ran out of petrol.

All this being said, in the world of self-employment, these things happen, and just because they have not happened to me before does not mean anything other than up until this moment, I have been jolly lucky.  I decided to roll with the waves, and get on with it, but not without a radio frequency voice over explaining my disapproval of the process that was followed in the run up to this news.

What I expected, I am not quite sure, but I do know that I was not anticipating the fog horn of a reply I received, bearing shark-like sharp teeth wording trying in vain to justify a decision that was clearly nowhere near due North on the business ethics compass.

I was partly shocked for a short while, until I realized that shock is a wasted emotion, much like guilt, and that I am a big girl, in a big girl world, and that no amount of negative fog horn behaviour has ever got anyone anywhere.  Time to move on, and trust that the next big thing will be bigger, better, and the platinum contract will be edged in diamonds.

And so, the lesson:  When you find the sails have dropped on your dream boat, and the water is deeper than you had hoped, remember that just as there are plenty of good and amazingly beautiful fish in the sea, so too are there sharks, and it is these sharks who, through their potential puncture wounds, teach us more than the little angelfish do.  So put up those sails, reinforce the rudder, sit on the deck, open the bottle of wine, and look towards the blood red sunset.