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With hindsight: Dear Suzy…

Suzy Jacobs, CEO and founder of She Business, reflects on how far she’s come as she writes a dynamic letter to her 17-year-old self.

Suzy Jacobs

You’re about to disappoint your family and I’m so grateful you did. 

You’re in a great school, doing no work, getting poor marks but having a fabulous time. Everyone tells you that marks and university is everything in life. Instead of trying harder, you run away. You make a break for freedom, following your instinct instead of society. You feel there is more to life than this narrow view of success. You are so right. 

Your family is in uproar, your parents despairing; they love you dearly but can’t grasp or agree with the choices you are making. Trust your instincts; your ability to connect with people will become the foundation on which you build an extraordinary life. The doubt starting to seep into your psyche becomes the genesis of fear. It has a purpose; move closer to it rather than trying to push it away.  

The fear you feel will be the very thing that gives you a platform to help others; in fact, you’ll go on to build a business with the express purpose of providing the skills and insights for others to overcome their own fears. Funny, hey?

You will come to realise that fear not only robs you of experiencing life at the most extraordinary level but it robs you of being able to give back. You become a leader who shares openly and honestly. This has a massive impact on your personal and business orbit and will change the future of generations to come. 

The fear you feel will be the very thing that gives you a platform to help others; in fact, you’ll go on to build a business with the express purpose of providing the skills and insights for others to overcome their own fears.

When you are 23, you will marry and have children, and for a while your life will be consumed by small, vulnerable creatures who depend on you for everything. The next time you raise your head, you’ll be in London and another world will open up for you.

For the second time in your life, you will recreate yourself, and this time the lessons you learned when you ran away from school to find yourself will make it easier. Your kids will be in primary school and you will start a fitness business — one where you get to support women in loving themselves and conquering their own fears. Understanding fear will have become your life theme. 

You will expand your universe and a light will start to shine in you. The light of absolute joy. 

When you get back to Sydney, that light will be shining brightly and you will start another endeavour, She Business. Within six months, you will be in a room with 250 businesswomen, speaking a language you all understand. The language of tenacity, resilience, determination; creating new opportunities. 

I’m so grateful to you for getting me here. You and I, we live our life congruently. I can be with people unattached to the outcome. There’s incredible freedom in that for them
and for me.

For me, it’s all about who you’re being rather than what you do. And for that, I have you to thank. 

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