Your struggle has purpose

Sorry it's been while since we have done a blog post. A lot has been happening and to be honest I wasn't sure the business would make it so have been busy with life. The last couple months have been the toughest for me personally and for the business and I began to doubt how capable I was as an entrepreneur. The journey can be a lonely one and if it wasn't for the support of my loved ones and the impact the brand has had, we wouldn't be here now. Entrepreneurship is very tough and you need to be resilient. Throughout the tough times I was doubting my ability and I lost sight of my why. It became about the results and survival instead of loving the process and motivating others to be purposeful in their lives through sport and fitness, which is the vision of Y-Fit and why I started the brand. It was during the tough times that I remembered exactly why I do this and the whole point in aspiring to build something impactful was to inspire people through the way you approach life and I lose sight of that through the chaos. You can't really inspire people if you only show yourself during the ups. Yeah it's cool to post celebrities wearing your products but what about when the business isn't going well? When sales are down and the support is not there. You are living month by month and struggling to see how you will cover next month's overheads. So I want to show both the ups and downs because this is the journey and what inspiring people is about. 
I do this for the process, not for the results and I needed to be reminded of that. 
The lesson I learnt was to embrace my process and understand that this journey is this difficult for a reason. My ambition requires a struggle that will cause self doubt, anxiety, loss of confidence, loneliness at times, but in the end it will result in personal growth and that's why it will all be worth it, that is a big reason to not give up. Having a positive impact on others are my motivation and the mission for the brand and I need to understand and embrace the struggles that come with that ambition. Your struggle has purpose and is there for refinement and life lessons, it is important to understand that.
"The feeling of success outweighs the pain of the process

Experience is a great teacher

Y-Fit will reach the 2 year mark at the end of the month and the growth has been amazing. Starting a sportswear brand is very difficult, especially in a world where this is a certain order and for a new brand, it is hard to establish yourself. I’m personally grateful to everyone who has supported Y-Fit because I understand how hard it is to get someone to buy into something new.
Over the past two years, as much as the brand has grown, I feel like I’ve grown so much personally. As someone who didn’t have any experience in fashion or business, I have learnt so much. There is something special about practical learning, I can draw from real life results rather than projections and theories. I think it was the combination of my health issues and a lack of ‘ experience’ that forced me to having perspective, to chasing my dreams, go all in and learn as you go because life is short. The aim is to become a practitioner, learning by doing and learning from the outcomes, whether success or failure, but the failures have been lessons not losses because the experience has put me in a position to win because is feedback is life lessons and I’m further ahead than the more qualified person who hasn’t started yet.
So in the space of 2 years, without any prior experience in fashion or business, I have a growing sportswear brand, been doing it full-time for 12 months, spoken at Brunel University on entrepreneurship and branding as well as doing a workshop about the production process, designed clothing for high profile people and experience brought me to this point. I wasn’t ready, I didn’t have any experience but I had a passion and was purposefully in wanting to learn how to run a company, to learn about the process of design and producing high quality clothing, especially as sportswear is so technical. I may of not had experience in the creation of clothing but I had a lot of experience as the athlete who wore the clothing and as an analyst who has an eye for detail. So my experience and perspective was just different, it wasn’t that I had no experience, my pov was just from a different angle and I believe my pov and my mindset has made me effective as an entrepreneur and in running the brand. 
When you have a passion, you find a way to make it work, especially when it is so fulfilling and you love the process. I love learning and as an entrepreneur I’m learning daily. I put that down to being a practical learner and being self-aware. Knowing what the most effective way you learn is important so you can put yourself in the best position to succeed. The main thing I’ve learnt up to this point now the business is in a place where the brand has great potential is how plan properly.
So I’m becoming more calculated and strategising more than before so I can execute better. I would ‘jump out of the window’ before thinking it through which isn’t a bad thing in terms of doing, but I’m learning to stop learning from my mistakes and rather from the mistakes of others, by reading books, getting advice from successful people, it can further put the brand in a position to succeed. 
I love the game of entrepreneurship, I see it like sport and fitness, in order to grow you must do, put in the work, reading is not enough, you must apply the knowledge because the experience is the key. The diamond is not in the clouds, it’s in the dirt aka the grind.