We’ve all heard the saying “When life gives you lemons… make lemonade.” But like, what if you can’t make lemonade? What if you don’t have sugar and asking your neighbors is out of the question. 

 

What do you do with the lemons then? 

 

Well, in a not so exciting turn of events – you figure it out. Use them as building blocks to forward your own company and dreams. And most of all, you don’t compare your lemons to other peoples lemons! I see this so often in business and it just tears at me. 

 

I am no saint myself, it has happened to me. You see someone getting something you feel maybe you should have. May it be a raise, a new client, advancing in some way. One more lemon. And it starts to weigh on you. 

 

Your lemons start to get heavy. Maybe they start to smell. 

 

So instead of making your lemons building blocks to success you start to throw them at other people. Using them as ammunition to help shield from your own worries. It is way easier to put people down than to confront the fear you have inside. That is why we have so many successful reality TV shows, duh! 

 

But the thing about using your lemons in this way, is it in turn has nothing to do with your personality. It doesn’t mean you are a bad person, or not a good business owner, or even someone who likes throwing lemons. It means you are a fighter – Which is what you have to be to run a successful business. 

 

But we, as business owners, have got to learn to handle our lemons better! 

 

When we feel on the brink of worry we have got to take a second before launching that yellow fruit (is lemon a fruit?) and stop ourselves. We have to take that moment to look within our company and see what WE can do better. Not what everyone else can do worse, or who we can blame things on. It is about what WE can change as bosses and owners and entrepreneurs. 

 

Look within yourself and find a place to start housing your lemons, because they are part of your success just as well. 

 

And if worse comes to worse, and one day you just have wayyy too many lemons… Put seven of them in a bowl for good fortune like Shannon from Real Housewives (New Shannon is rocking it, though I don’t see any lemons in sight, so actually – MAYBE don’t do that).