Stepping Stones: Having the Courage to Make Dreams Come True- Step Seven

From the desk of Hope…

I work with teachers in some way almost everyday and a very common question I get is, “how did you become a literacy consultant?” followed by a comment along the lines of, “I want to become one too.” In fact, I have had this conversation twice this week already with teachers. I decided a while back to write ten blog entries summarizing my journey as a literacy consultant. This blog is step seven and it is about TAKING A GIANT LEAP OF FAITH.

Alice and I were working together in a former job when the vision came to us that we could possibly start an educational consulting business. Soon after a brainstorming session of all of the things we could offer as consultants, we headed out to look for an office. I could not see myself working out of my house so off we went to look for an office space.

The first place that we looked at, which is our current office in the West End of Winston Salem, seemed perfect. It was in an old house that had a space that could be used as a classroom, a small area that could be an office and a beautiful view of a park.  Downtown was nearby and cute restaurants are in the neighborhood.

While talking to the landlord, he asked, what do you do? Alice and I looked at each other and stammered, mumbled and stumbled with our words and finally very proudly said,

“We.  are.  educational.  consultants.”

From that day on, we BELIEVED we were educational consultants.

So then the big question was, do we quit our jobs to become full time consultants and if we do, what risks will that involve?

Some of our pros and cons looked something like this:

Pros of quitting our jobs and becoming consultants:

• It will be fun.
• We can help teachers build their capacity on a daily basis – what a contribution!
• It will be professionally challenging and rewarding.
• We will have flexibility with our schedules.

Cons of quitting our jobs and becoming consultants:

• We need money to pay our bills. Will we get enough work quickly enough to pay ourselves a salary?
• It will be stressful at first in the development stage.
• We have limited knowledge of how to run a business – we need help!
• This could turn into some travel.

In the end and after many, many conversations and meetings with people of all kinds, family, friends, business owners, mentors, we decided that we had to take a giant leap of faith and as my neighbor and business owner said, JUST DO IT.

Step Seven: Gather the courage to make your dreams come true – take a leap of faith!