calm, deliberate shining
A case to stop hustling, at least for a little bit
Have you ever been the owner of a business and thought to yourself “What am I doing? Why do I keep going with this?”. My guess would be: yes.
It’s normal to feel that as an entrepreneur. And as with most feelings, it passes. We have up days and down days.
What happens though when you feel that for months and weeks at a time? When you have to force yourself to care and show up again and again for the simplest tasks? When you’re in survival mode for motnhs, not sure how you’re going to cover expenses while debt climbs higher?
People appreciate you do for your work. Yet you grapple with resentment towards this thing you’ve spent years building. You haven’t figured out how to actually make it work yet.
You consider shutting it down, but an a kind, elder lady in line at the bank tells you how much she looks forward to your product every week . She hopes you never stop. Yet your light is getting dimmer by the day.
You feel more and more shame and less and less energy as time goes on. You can’t stop or else it will come crashing down, but you can’t keep going because you’re running on fumes.
Hi, hey 👋
Welcome to the club.
If you saw yourself in any part of that: I understand.
That was me for a long time, and I’ve decided to do something different.
It’s about doing the “risky” thing and <gasp!> slowing down.
I’m calling this project Mycolentus.
Myco: from Greek mykes meaning fungus or mushroom.
-lentus: from Latin meaning slow, deliberate, flexible.
I’m still at the helm of my mushroom cultivation business, Heartwood Mushrooms. I’m not ready to let go of my relationship with fungi yet. I still think there is a lot of possibility here.
So, this feels like it fits, and is healthy reminder:
What would my business look like if I slowed down and listened? Where can I be more flexible?
I found out that that Mico- means to shine in Latin.
Well, hey.
That fits too. A calm, slow, flexible path to finding my light again.
It’s the antidote to grinding in survival mode for 10 years and falling out of love with a dream I forgot I had.
It’s how I’m bringing together different parts of myself: the mycologist, the educator, the problem-solver, the creator, to serve people I care about.
In practice, Mycolentus is going to be stories and lessons I wish my younger self had. It’s for you who has gifts to give the world but who are stuck in the everything else it takes to run a business.
In my decade of building a business from scratch, I’ve made lot of mistakes and learned a tremendous amount. I’ve helped friends build their businesses with the skills I picked along the way.
It’s also going to be a bit more tender than most business content you’re used to consuming. There’s a very real human that we need to care for too in all this. This is particularly alive for me right now. I had been overriding what my brain and body have been trying to tell me where I should have been paying attention.
With that, here’s what I’m going to be writing about:
How to run a business better so you can make less mistakes, save money and time, and grow faster and,
How to support and tune into the human running the business.
In some ways I’m starting this journey, and in other ways, it’s the next steps in a much larger story.
If we get to travel together and share light for a while, I’d consider myself blessed.
Glad to have you here.
- Shane
P.S. He flicked the tip of his tail in a slow arc.
“Try this small, impolite experiment:
Imagine you’ve already arrived at the end of each road.
Picture the tea that’s waiting there.
Taste it.
Is it bitter, over-sugared, or just right?
Does the company bore you to tears, or do their nonsense feel like music?
Does your heart do that inconvenient little skip… or does it sigh and check its watch? The road that makes your future-self lean forward, even an inch, is the one that’s already calling you.”
He added, beginning to vanish from the ears down, and tail up:
“The others? They’re very polite distractions. Most people spend years being terribly polite to destinations they don’t actually want.
Such a waste of good curiosity.”
Only the grin remained now.
“So… which tea are you already thirsty for, Alice?
Answer that, and the path decides itself.
The rest is just walking.”