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my best life 07.10.17.1204P

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Three months later <strong>my</strong> business began to struggle and all<br />

the emotionally based reasons to move to California<br />

began to sour. My business suffered one set-back after<br />

another and without the financial capital to weather the<br />

small storms our <strong>life</strong>style was changing quickly. The<br />

money was flying out the window faster than I could make<br />

those critical business connections to grow the company<br />

in this new environment.<br />

I began to realize that I had bitten off more than I could<br />

possibly chew.<br />

As the final months played out, I made poor choices out<br />

of panic, trying almost anything to keep <strong>my</strong> head above<br />

water. I resorted to creative deal making for the sake of<br />

just getting some cash flow coming in.<br />

At one point, I would offer <strong>my</strong> services for a third of <strong>my</strong><br />

customary rate and in doing so, two things happened.<br />

First, not all the bills were getting paid. Second, <strong>my</strong><br />

customer’s expectations remained high, but based on<br />

time/effort and quality I became resentful working three<br />

times as hard for the money. I felt as if was being taken<br />

advantage of, not waking up to the fact that I had brought<br />

this upon <strong>my</strong>self by lowering <strong>my</strong> fees and not <strong>my</strong><br />

standards. I thought if I could hang on long enough, the<br />

17

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