Lennon Bone reflects on how family and friends' doubts nearly stopped their creative work. When relatives finally saw the business succeed, they came around. The real cost: letting their skepticism keep you from fully showing up for your own thing.
It's understandable that you want people to like the stuff that you make. It makes sense that you'd be afraid of what your friends and family will think when you put yourself out there online trying to grow a community around the art that you make. I mean, I literally had friends and family unfollow me. I had, you know, some family that were just concerned. They said that they were worried about what I was doing, but I had to ask myself, are their thoughts really about me, or is it about them? And even more so, what's it costing me to allow their concerns to dictate how I achieve my goal? The answer was, it was costing me a lot. And I wasn't showing up the way way I should have. I wasn't showing up the way I could. And as things started to come together and I started to develop my business as a creative person, they sort of understood it, and they let it be what it was. Do they fully get it? No. And when they don't, I kindly remind them that they don't need to, because it's not for them, it's for you.
