Sometimes people tell me that things like homeschooling or running a business are not for everyone. I agree, and the short answer is, they are not. I certainly don’t try to convince people that they SHOULD homeschool or run a business. I simply share my experience and ideas so people can learn about various options and get inspired, but eventually it’s a personal choice for everyone.
Homeschooling or running a business is not for everyone in a sense that not everyone finds it attractive. But if you are inspired and want to do it, you CAN! If you want to do it, nothing prevents you from trying. You may not be good at it and decide that it’s not for you. You may fail at running a business. Failure is ok. Lots of successful people fail at first. You just try again. Or stop and go back to working at a company.
If you want to do it, don’t let excuses stop you. Don’t think that homeschooling or running a business requires any special talents or favorable conditions. I know a single working mom whose children are with grandparents or a nanny during the day, and she homeschools them in the evenings, after she comes home from a full day at work. If she can do it, anyone can.
Look at me – I don’t have any special talents, I don’t have an MBA (business degree) and I was never trained as a teacher. I went to school and college and worked at full-time corporate jobs just like everyone else. No one taught be to homeschool or run a business. My husband and I don’t have any support network. Our extended families not only didn’t help but actively opposed everything we did: homebirthing, homeschooling, running a business. They gave us all kinds of trouble because we did things differently. But it never stopped me. If I can do it, anyone can.
You may not know what to do and how to do it, and that’s ok. I didn’t start out knowing what to do, either. I simply knew what I DIDN’T want. For example, I didn’t want to give birth at a hospital, which led me to discovering homebirth. Similarly, I didn’t want my kids to be brainwashed in school, and seeing that American schools didn’t really provide good education anyway, I figured, “what the hell, I can just as well homeschool my kids.” When I started my business, I had no idea how to run it. I made lots of mistakes and learned on the go.
That’s how it always happens. No one has special talents for success. No one needs special skills to get started on something. You tinker, experiment, learn from your mistakes, and eventually figure out the way you want to go.