The Hardest Lesson I Learned About Life and Business (When I Thought I Knew It All and Had It All Together)

Created by Bianca Rothschild with Midjourney

It was 2008, we were working with a business coach, Malcolm McClintock. At the time he was helping us build strong foundations to get Magicdust, my digital agency, in rock solid shape. We had been growing fast in the two years previous, and to keep growing we could not keep doing things in a "make it-up-as-you -go-along" type of way, anymore.

While I had been a business owner for 6 years at the time, this was my second company, and even through I was the most successful I had ever been in my life, I had actually got somewhat jaded and felt trapped by my creation. Turns out I was making a lot of noob (read know-it-all) mistakes: I was burned out, uninspired, and grinding it out day by day.

One day, Malcom asked me, "You know what your problem is?"

Honestly, I thought to myself, "Dude, I don't have any problems, we are here to work on the business." But instead I said, with ice in my mouth," No, please tell me."

Then Malcolm said to me:

"You need a bigger game, if you don't create one the universe will create one for you..."

That day, my whole life changed.

I found myself squirming in the reality that I had some how gotten myself all stuck in the weeds, (albeit very successful weeds) and I was whining about it. Somehow I had no vision for a great future for myself or the company, I was just trying to escape the endless work, work, work. The impact of taking this level of responsibility for my life took some time to swallow.

What happened next was that I discovered, in every area of my life, and even now 16 years later, the importance of continuing to grow. And to always have a big game to play.

I had forgotten to keep my eye on the horizon, and was burning through my days on push energy, rather then the pull energy of a great vision or dream. Trust me the difference feels like living or dying.

So with this I created a maxim to live by: "The universe does not require us to be perfect, it does however require that we grow."

One way or another I prefer to choose how I will grow rather than have a 'game' given to me.

I did however get served one of the most brutal blows of my life not long after that day with Malcolm. I had indeed been contracting and the universe said, "Sorry honey, but you gotta grow!"

More on those stories later.

Thanks for reading. Would love to hear about the big games you're playing right now. ✈️