“Tisha, this is as good as it’s going to get.”

I’ll never forget those words. I didn’t respond back. There was no reason to throw punches and get ugly. Instead, I bit my tongue, kept my head down and continued my hustle to find better.

I was in my first few months of planning and hosting my event Social Connect PHX back in summer 2018 and could already see the red flags with the current venue I was hosting the event at. It wasn’t a bad place by any means and I’m grateful the owner gave me my start to kick off my idea and build momentum. But, it wasn’t ideal for what I was trying to accomplish.

I had a much bigger vision for the event. I wanted more space to grow; a partner who saw this as a winning combination for both our businesses to flourish and build community; who fully understood that it couldn’t be just me promoting this event, but that they should own it too if they had a stake in the game and yearned for the same success.

At the end of the day, none of the wants I was looking for ever happened. I got the bare minimum – the venue space on their slowest day, a few appetizer plates and very little communication.

I was told on a phone call after sharing my wants that this was in fact “as good as it gets.”

It made me cringe and my skin crawl.

When people downgrade the overall mission of what you’re trying to accomplish, it doesn’t just hurt, it stings like hell in the worst possible way.

You start to question if they know something you don’t and whether this truly is as good as it gets or if there’s something better waiting for you on the other side.

I didn’t argue. I kept going knowing that this was my start, but it wasn’t going to be my end game.

Persistence and staying the course would ultimately pay off.

If you’ve been following along on my journey in real life, you know that his comment didn’t keep me down for too long. It wasn’t as “good as it gets.” It definitely got better with time after finding my dream strategic partner who fulfilled all my wants without question and then some.

We had the same mission – to build community.

As I’ve shared in numerous rules of life lessons, there will be plenty of noise to tune out. Plenty of people pushing you down making you think you can’t possibly rise from where you are. It’s not you. It’s them and their own insecurities of seeing you forge ahead and succeed.

Don’t listen to it. While there are a ton of good people in the world who truly want you to succeed, there are enough of them out there too that want to see you crash and burn who make idiotic comments like this one I shared.

Prove them wrong.

Keep your head down and your chin up. Never stop working for what you want in your life.

It WILL happen.

Rule of Life Lesson #97:  

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