It starts as a chase — for money, growth, recognition, the dream of “making it.”
And for a while, that’s enough. You build, you achieve, you climb. But somewhere along the way, something shifts. You realise it was never about the money. It’s about what the money gives you: freedom. The freedom to choose how you spend your time, who you work with, and the kind of energy you allow into your day.
You begin choosing clients who light you up, the ones you go beyond the brief for because their wins feel like your own. You realise that joy and alignment are strategy too.
But it’s not all ease. There are late nights, heavy days, and the quiet hum of responsibility that never really leaves. The fear. The self-doubt. The “what if this all falls apart?” moments that show up right before something beautiful unfolds. Because that’s how growth works. Fear and manifestation always arrive hand in hand.
They don’t tell you about the imposter syndrome. Seventeen years in marketing, and I still get intimidated by a 21-year-old with a ring light and a Canva template calling herself a strategist. You second-guess yourself, you question your relevance, and then you keep going, because you’ve built something real.
Then comes the deeper work, the kind that has nothing to do with business plans or KPIs. The self-reflection. The late-night questions like, “What’s enough?” “Who do I want to be in this next chapter?” and “What am I willing to turn down, even when it pays well?” There’s a version of you growing quietly beside your business, and one day, she catches up.
I’ve been the version who hustled. The one who lived on caffeine and anxiety. And now, the version who eats lunch in the sunshine because I finally understand that nothing is that urgent, and I’m not saving lives.
There have been failures, lessons, and moments that cost more than I’d like to admit. But there’s also been gratitude, growth, and joy I couldn’t have planned for.
Ten years later, the business looks different. I look different. What started as a 26-year-old newlywed with a dream is now a mother of two, a woman who’s healed, learned, and built something that still feels like hers.
Entrepreneurship was never just about the money. It’s about becoming. Becoming the version of you who keeps showing up, no matter what, because she’s finally doing something that feels true.
xoxo
Suhaifa
