Your Business is Just Your Childhood Wound in a Blazer
Show me your business dramas, I’ll show you your childhood traumas.
Your business has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with your inner child.
Right?
Um, right?
Let’s examine the evidence:
The “We Have a Process and Workflow for Every Possible Thing on Earth” Biz:
➡️ Growing up, you were the one holding it all together. You did ALLTHETHINGS and were sad-at-yourself when the A’s didn’t have +’s after them.
✅ You define your worth by your usefulness, your ability to see around every corner, and having the tightest run ship on the block. You’ve also been known to inhale a pint of ice cream at 3 PM on a Tuesday, because even 42 color-coded Notion dashboards aren’t enough to contain those pesky emotions.
The “I’m a Genius Free-Spirit Chaos Gremlin” Biz:
➡️ You were so tightly controlled growing up that when your team starts begging for SOPs, you start backpacking through Indonesia. You gotta be you, and you will not be controlled. Schedules are for the weak. Procedures are for the dull. Your life is one bonfire to the next, and you are here for it, burns and all.
✅ You define your worth by your creativity. If you don’t have the MOST BRILLIANT IDEA EVER every 10 days, you’re failing. You’ve been known to jet off to Croatia on a moment’s notice, but NOT because you’re running from anything. No. Just a good deal on tickets. That’s all.
The “Bending Over Into this Backbend is My Favorite” Biz:
➡️ You’re dancing as fast as you can to keep everyone happy. You should have a shelf full of Tonys for all the two-stepping you’ve done. Instead? Stress ulcers and migraine meds. Depending on people is a been-there, done-that, still-paying-off-the-therapy-bill. If you can’t personally keep them happy…you will damn well die trying.
✅ You define your worth by other people’s moods. If they’re not happy, you’re not safe (and clearly a failure). It has nothing to do with them, their lives, or the full blown dumpster fire they’re currently navigating. No, boo–it’s all you.
The “Burn it All Down Every Few Years” Biz:
➡️ You can’t settle into success—because then everybody might notice that you don’t belong here. You’re nervous, you’re jumpy, you (whoops!) sabotage. Those 27 new ideas you had yesterday? Pure avoidance technique (but it’s ok, keep calling it “spark”).
✅ You define your worth by struggle. If you’re not overworked, overwhelmed, and over it, something’s wrong. You’re trying to prove something to someone— but years ago, you forgot what, or who. So you keep creating more work. More stress. More chaos. Just in case that answer ever shows up.
The “Please Love Me, But Definitely Not to Fill this Gaping Wound My Parents Left Behind” Biz:
➡️ You seek validation from authority figures. Mentors. The barista. Your neighbor. Your neighbor’s cat. If there is any little hint of potential love floating around you NEED it, and if that means posting 12 reels, 3 Linkedin “think pieces,” and and Instagram poll asking “Do you guys even like me?” before noon, then damnit, you’re gonna.
✅ You define your worth by external praise, you adorable little genius. (See, I got your back.)
The “I Should’ve Won that 4th Grade Spelling Bee” Biz:
➡️ You were the star, and you forgot anything mattered besides 1st Place. Making it to the next round? Irrelevant. if it’s not the Golden Buzzer, it’s failure. (Also I went out on word “rhubarb” in the 4th grade spelling bee, so I feel your pain. Who the F put an H in “rhubarb?”)
✅ Your worth only exists in that song: Simply the best… (the Schitt’s Creek version, obviously). And when trophy-hunting gets too exhausting? You post some hazy yoga pics on IG with the caption, “On sabbatical…rediscovering my bliss!”—while eating Cheerios in bed and staring at the wall.
So what’s the overarching lesson, now that you’ve found the one (or five) that apply to you?
You’re gonna enact your childhood stuff in business.
Yay, being human! (It sucks sometimes, have a hot dog.)
But here’s the part no one tells you: your business can also be where you heal.
Your business isn’t broken. (Neither is your life, while we’re getting existential.) It’s just telling you a story. The same story you’ve been living since childhood. The same fears. The same needs. The same exhausting patterns.
So.
Are you gonna keep running the same script?
Your business is a weirdly beautiful opportunity for healing, if you let it be.
✅ Think of how you worked on your money dramas when you started earning some real numbers, and your money/scarcity stuff is way better now.
✅ Think of how you wept the first time you had to let someone go, or at the first cranky client email.
Now? You take all that stuff in stride.
So grab the notebook. The fancy one from your last mastermind retreat. You have a childhood story to rewrite. And if you’ve written this much success into your book already…think how much healing you can write into the chapters to come.
