Entrepreneur USA - January 2018

Photograph/NIGEL PARRY

GROOMER, CASEY GEREN

AS WE ENTERinto a new year,

I’ve thought a lot about

something a woman asked me

attheendof2017.Iwasaguest

on theNever Settle Show,a

live-streaming talk show, and

shesatinthefrontrowofthe

audience and stood up to

speak. She’s experienced a lot

ofsetbacks,shesaid.Alotof

obstacles.Herlifeoftenfeels

stagnant. How, she wondered,

can she move forward?

AndItoldherthis:Nobody

sees your past except you.

Consider this magazine you

hold in your hands. You don’t

seethefivearticlesthatfell

apart. Or the two successive

freelanceeditorswe’dhiredto

helpwhothenbackedoutand

leftusscrambling.Orthestory

werewrotesomanytimes,we

thought about scrapping it. Or

thefires,themanyfires,weput

outinthefinalweek.Allyou

seeiswhatwewantedyouto

see: our final product, as good

aswecouldmakeit.

Consider the guy writing

thesewords.Youdon’tseethe

timesIwasturneddownfor

jobs. The note from an editor I

oncehad,whowrote,largeand

in red, that my work was “a lot

of words with not much

substance.” (Screw that guy.)

ThetimeIgotfired.ThetimeI

misspelled a man’s name

throughout an entire 3,000-

word story. My clumsy first

weeksaseditorinchief,asI

struggledtofigureouthowto

inhabittherole.Allyouseeis

what I want you to see: a

professional,asgoodasIcould

make myself.

Nowextendthattoyourself.

To y ou , y ou r m i s t a k e s m ay f e e l

ever-present—always there,

always stifling. But nobody

knows them. Nobody knows

the doubt. Nobody knows the

rejections, the insults, the

slammeddoors,thefrustra-

tions, the anxiety that kept you

anchored to a chair. These

thingsarenotbrandedonyour

skin.They’renotstitchedinto

your clothing. They’re only with

youifyouchoosetocarrythem.

It’sanewyear,butwedon’t

need a new calendar to break

withourpast.Wecandoit

daily.Wecandoithourly—

walkoutofabadmeeting,

collect our thoughts, and walk

into the next one with a smile.

Still,thecalendardoesatleast

give us a tidy way of thinking

about time:That was then, and

this is now.We c a n t hin k of a

setbackaseitheranever-

presentpartofourlivesor

something that happened at a

fixed point in time—in a

particular month or a particu-

lar year, always fading away

from us, stuck in the past as we

charge toward the future.

I don’t mean to say that your

hardships should remain

secret. They made you who you

are, and I encourage you to

embrace that. But the upside of

setbacks isn’t just hard-won

wisdom; it’s an appealing story

that will draw people to you,

and to your brand. Everyone

loves a hero’s journey—includ-

ing, frankly, the staff of

Entrepreneur magazine, and

our readers. We’re all drawn to

the tale of someone who went

on a quest, experienced

terrible setbacks, and over-

came them on their way to

success. If you’ve been set back,

it just means you have a great

storytotell.

I’ll be honest with you: In a

way, I’ve just told you my own

hero’s journey. I revealed

obstacles in the context of

success. I did it because it felt

good, and because I knew you’d

respond well to it. I knew it’d

make you like me more. Even

here, now, in this sentence, I’m

showing you only what I want

you to see.

The new year is here. Let’s

tell our stories the way we want

them to be told. Nobody sees

your past except you.

Jason Feifer

[email protected]

@heyfeifer

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Control Your

Own Story

We’re either the sum of our setbacks or the sum

of our triumphs. Choose the latter.

14 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / January-February 2018