My husband has been trying to encourage me off the ground in my Young Living business for a while now. This weekend I attended the Young Living Live Your Passion rally in Raleigh and the ladies that spoke inspired me to push myself to, as one lady so eloquently put it, “punch fear in the face.”

My fear in this business is rejection. How to punch that one in the face? Easy–throw a home party.

Technically, it was a class. The idea behind it was Essential Oils 101: what are essential oils, how do we use them, and what does Young Living in particular have to offer? There was going to be information, but not so much it became overwhelming. I called it a party because I baked essential oils based desserts–lavender lemon cake cookies made from lavender and lemon essential oils, peppermint brownies made from peppermint essential oil, and lemon bars made from lemon essential oil. I also had a DIY peppermint sugar scrub station set up so guests could take something home with them. Last night I stayed up until midnight preparing the food, cleaning the house, prepping for the informative part of the class. I spent all evening hobbling around the house with giant blisters on my feet because yesterday afternoon I was going door to door in my neighborhood personally handing out invitations, and somehow my shoe ended up harboring a new habitat for our friendly neighborhood fire ants, leaving me to I walk home barefoot on the literally blistering hot road. With Matthias strapped to my back. People must have thought I was insane. Or a homeless bum; I’m not sure.

The point is, I worked really, really hard for this class.

I woke up early and made all my final preparations. The desserts lay out on dining room table, all the diffusers were filled with my favorite essential oil combinations, and I had strategically set out groups of oils all over my living room for guests to examine. The party was supposed to start at 12 noon.

Nobody came.

I know there’s a really important lesson here but in reality all it felt like was rejection. I went to their houses; I knocked on their doors. They knew it was me and yet they didn’t come.

And thus is the reality of starting a business.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned while trying to start up my Young Living and Beachbody businesses is also probably one of the most obvious: It is really stinking easy to give up. I spent a lot of money and time preparing for this party and nobody showed up, and if I invite them again they probably still won’t show up since clearly they don’t have much interest in either me or the product. But maybe it’s just that I’m brand new to this neighborhood and they don’t know much about me or the product. Maybe I need to get to know them first. One of the most helpful things I learned from my training is this: people buy things from people they like. I have a cute baby so it would go to follow that people would like me since I’m part of the cute-baby package.

What I’m trying to say is that my business isn’t doomed to fail because nobody showed up to my class. There could be all sorts of reasons–12 noon is not a good time, I didn’t give enough information, they didn’t have an interest in essential oils–or maybe it was a personal reason such as them not liking the impression I gave when I showed up on their doorstep. Regardless, if I give it up because I failed this one time I will never get another customer and I certainly will never sell another product. 

To all of you who are trying to set up a business, remember that a whole lot of failures come before success. My big lesson here isn’t particularly profound but it is important: don’t give up. 

Today I punched fear in the face and I put myself out there. My fear in this business is rejection, and what do you know? Not one person showed up to my class. I think that counts as rejection. But we pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off, and we keep moving because a failed class does not equal a failed business. When I put this into the perspective of eternity and I think about how much Jesus loves me and that he chose me, this rejection all of a sudden feels awfully insignificant. When I think about how many times I have rejected Jesus by doing what I wanted to impress others or not helping someone in need because I’m selfish, this rejection loses its sting.

That isn’t to say that the disappointment is any less real, because the feeling of failure in a business is powerful and it is legitimate, but it doesn’t control an outcome and it certainly doesn’t define future successes or lack of them. One day I’m going to blog about the crazy success of my business and be thankful I didn’t give up today when I very easily could have.

I’m going to do it. You will see.