Mel Daniels - Fear of Failure

“I was afraid I’d fail and I didn’t want to disappoint myself or my family.”

Mel Daniels operates a virtual assistant business. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs love their business again by removing their constant struggle to create and publish content. 

Mel’s story is a common one: finding the courage to exit a corporate career to start a business and find the right balance between family and work.

 “I had a successful corporate career in finance before taking a break to raise my two children who are now 13 and 11,” Mel says. “Even though I knew I could continue being a successful business woman earning a large salary, I just knew I didn’t want to go back.”

The thought of transforming this idea of balance into an actual business was overwhelming. I’d been out of corporate for ten years. I felt out of touch and filled with doubt. I was afraid I’d fail and I didn’t want to disappoint myself or my family.

My family is the most important thing to me. They fill me with pride and laughter. They make my heart sing. They are my everything. So it was imperative that however I move forward it should be with a sense of balance and love, which in itself seemed like an impossible task.

There were two distinct moments that moved me from idea to action.  The first was finding my ‘why’ - I’d spent months searching and brainstorming ideas with my family, but the whole time the answer was staring me in the face. Instead of looking at what skills I could market, I needed to look inside to find what made my heart sing.

I thrived on helping people. I spent hours volunteering and teaching ethics at my kids’ school.  My ‘why’ was all about providing people with support to be the best that they can be.

I especially wanted small business owners to love their business again by taking away the struggle of feeling like they needed to constantly create new content. I wanted to provide them with tools and knowledge, so they could be freed up to focus on building their business. I wanted them to succeed, I wanted to be a part of that journey and I wanted to be doing the crazy dance when they landed a big client!

The second moment was a conversation with a friend, who made me realise that if things didn’t work out, there would always be something to learn. If I failed, it didn’t mean I was hopeless or that I could never run my own business. It would only give me an opportunity to work out a better way of approaching it.

Mel has been able to use her business to further build on her ‘why’ of empowering others by giving more women the opportunity to work flexible hours depending on their family’s needs. The Meld Business Services team has now grown and Mel is finding further joy in training, connecting and leading other mums in business. 

I now recognise that not succeeding is not the same as failing, and that having my own business is one of my greatest achievements in life.  Nothing is more fulfilling than to think my family is proud of me, to see me as a role model and to remember the time and connection I’ve been able to make with them whilst working.

To connect with Mel you can check out her website, or follow her on facebook, instagram or LinkedIn