3 Reasons Why Letting Go Can Be the Cherry On Top of Your Success

Lived Truths for Entrepreneurs During All Stages of Life

Author Marcela Gómez as part of her first entrepreneurial venture, the cheerleading squad she founded at her all-girls Catholic school (top right), and later as an aerobics instructor in Colombia (bottom left).

At a pivotal moment in my life (ahem, 1982), I watched the film Summer Lovers and thought my true path was to leave everything behind and move to Mykonos, Greece. Did I know Greek? Not at all, but my confidence in making it there, away from my current reality, was all too alluring. (Especially since I knew I could definitely take it easy, sunbathe and drink olive-filled martinis all day—I was made for that. Or so I thought…

To say I was confused is an understatement. I had zero idea of what I wanted to do after I threw the cap at my high school graduation. After repeating 4th grade three times due to moving back and forth between Colombia and the U.S., and then unexpectedly completing high school in the U.S., my vision for myself career-wise wasn’t looking too hot. In fact, I wasn’t looking at all. My only goal was to get graduation over with and move back to Colombia to spend time where I felt I really belonged.

On top of that, I can’t recall anyone ever sitting down with me and asking me, “Marcela, what is it that you want to do in life?” 

I felt lost. Because hindsight is 20/20, the journey to connecting the dots of my lived experiences to something bigger than myself proved a blurry one. I didn’t understand the truth of letting go and trusting that life would take you where you needed to go—yet. 

So, from someone who didn’t know what she wanted or what she was doing in her young adult years, let me invite you on a journey of my top three reasons why you shouldn’t worry about the direction you think your life is going (or isn’t!)—or your children’s lives for that matter. It’s an exercise in believing in yourself, and in the universe. 

Reason #1: Life ebbs and flows—it isn’t always on an upward path. This is not only okay, it’s necessary for growth. 

Eleven schools in two different countries had the pleasure of calling me their student. Eleven. Graduating at age 19 (two years older than most of my classmates!), I didn’t have to be convinced of all the ways things could “go wrong”—I had been living these twists and turns for years. You have to admit, it takes a certain tenacity for someone to hop around like that and come out with a semblance of sanity. 

At my all-girls Catholic school in Bogotá, cattiness surprisingly didn’t oversurface. Instead, there was a supportive atmosphere full of community, friendship, and a deep sense of belonging. When visiting family in Charlotte one year, I was told we were staying there to finish school. I was devastated. Not only was I thrown into a full-time English environment where I knew nobody, my friendships I had worked hard to develop in Bogotá were swept under my feet. 

Thankfully, I moved back after graduation and proceeded to have a Disney-style endless summer with my friends. Though come Fall, everyone entered university and I was left to drive my dad’s Mustang through the streets of Bogotá—alone.  Tragic, I know, but the alternative was to sit at home and fantasize about stress-free Mykonos. Mykonos signified the freedom of not having to answer to anyone, specifically the career question I cringed at and made up answers for all the time. 

I needed to do something—anything—for myself. I had to take myself out of this rut called loneliness. 

Reminder: We, as humans, are more likely to focus, dwell, and let negative past experiences shape us. This is called the negativity bias in psychology, and when we acknowledge it, we can help change the narratives we tell ourselves about our lives. This makes it easier, in turn, for us to take action. 

For me, this looked like revisiting my time in high school in the U.S. I felt like my life had been taken away from me and that I had no friends, when in reality many people liked me, I had lots of friends, and I had some great times. I felt that my life in Bogotá was so much better, and although I prefer it, I had overlooked how I was growing, maturing and discovering myself in ways that my friends back home hadn’t had the opportunity to explore yet. 

The Making of Marcela, as I like to call it, looked different from my ideal version of what it was “supposed” to look like, but I ended up okay (let’s be real, amazing), even though it felt awful at the time. I had to learn to flow with the ebbs and lows of life. 

Reason #2: Your first shot at something doesn’t have to be your last—or even the right one, so learn to continue showing up.

Anyone who was anyone was going to Theresa Leleux’s gym and spa back in the day. So, I went and asked for a job. A little white lie of how I had taught (not just taken) aerobics classes back in the U.S. and the commitment of showing up brought up my tenacity quite nicely to get the job. 

Did I get the job I wanted? No, but I was ecstatic that I could work in a space I loved that wasn’t too strenuous (I mean, look at the photo above: That smile! Those legs!). The lesson here is that I put myself out there in a situation where I could’ve been rejected wholeheartedly, but I did it anyway. 

I was doing something, and I was doing it for myself, and that felt ridiculously rewarding. 

Not to mention, I successfully leveled up again by learning 11 dances in three weeks and becoming part of her famous modern dance troupe. I was crushing it. But working at a spa instead of getting a degree was crushing my dad with worry. 

Then, Leonardo came into the picture. A civil engineer who pushed me and taught me patience at once, he told me: What do you want to do Marce? You can’t dance forever. I explained how my U.S. credits didn’t transfer to Colombian universities and that I couldn’t even apply because I wouldn’t get accepted—a secret fear of mine. 

Let me tell you something: if my dad could erect a statue of Leonardo to pay homage to him, he would. 

Just as I had shaken my life up like a snow globe to get into aerobics and dance, I rattled it once more, but like a slow lava lamp this time, to get back into academics. Recognizing that I wanted to study in Colombia was a game-changer. I managed to validate my entire three years of high school in six months.

Although I felt “behind” my school peers, I knew my life was headed in the direction I wanted it to go.

Reminder: Don’t worry about your “pace” in life, or if what you are doing is “right.” Everyone’s path is different, even if you look around and think it has to be done at a certain age or within a certain timeframe. Just keep showing up and trying wholeheartedly, especially if it scares you.

Showing up time and again to try new things is all part of the cycle of growth. Look at me! 57 years young and still reinventing myself years later. As life changes around me, I change with it, let it flow and move on.

Reason #3: Life will surprise you, align with you, and always come full circle, a lá The Alchemist.

Okay, so now I had learned the importance of the energy of speaking on my wants and acting them into existence, both with aerobics and dancing (hello Broadway dream of performing!) and of completing academics to study in Colombia (aced those national exams!). Now what? 

Here’s where I started to learn the Universe is always listening and aligning to what you put out. It just so happened the dean of the advertising school of a university in Bogotá lived right across the hall from my dad, so he agreed to tour me around the university. I instantly fell in love. I graduated four years later. 

Let’s take a look into how I unknowingly became a badass entrepreneur because life listened and lined up throughout years:

1. I experimented with big dreams early on. 

   1. I created one of the first cheerleading school teams in Bogotá (photo above)—after convincing the nuns at my school to create one, since I didn’t want to play basketball or volleyball—the only two options for sports at my school. 

   2. This was my first entrepreneurial project. I got down and dirty, busy clearing access for the new sport, bringing American cheer catalogs to my school, ordering and taking inventory, accounting for everyone’s money, and delivering on my promise to have a full-fledged cheer squad at my school.

   3. Now, there are so many cheerleading squads in Colombia and I’m proud to know I helped start that national movement. 

2. I learned how to advocate for myself and take risks. 

   1. I showed up at Therese Leleux’s spa sin pena (without shame or embarrassment!) and told her exactly what I wanted. 

   2. I committed to my aerobics job and then to my modern dance troupe position. I went full in for myself, took the risk of doing so, and had one of the most amazing times of my life. 

3. I believed I was capable. 

   1. Had I already repeated more school than was ever necessary for my life? Yes. Did I willingly do it one more time, on my terms, to get the degree I wanted? Also yes. I knew I had it in me and that I could accomplish anything I wanted. 

   2. Had I gone through culture shock and negative (to my mind back then) experiences moving to a different country and culture? Yes. Did I willingly go back and do that all again in Nashville, now as a single mother? Yes. I learned how to find a community and a sense of belonging in a foreign environment—it was all up to me.

Combine all three and all my past experiences? BOOM. Marcela Gómez, founder of two companies and current CEO of Culture Shift Team. Badass female Latina entrepreneur. (And becoming even more kickass as she ages!)

Reminder: Life will align with you when you give out the energy of people, places, and situations you want in the world—you are at the right time at the right place and with the right people (as I learned in my mantra: “You are here for such a time as this”). Dreams do happen, but when you least expect them to and in ways in which you never would have expected to get there. You have to trust in the universe, in God if religion is your thing, in something, that life will be working for you. 

For me, my entrepreneurial story really comes full circle. So although I didn’t remember until recently that cheerleading was my first entrepreneurial experience, I think that some things are not in our memory consciously but they are still there. That’s why I think, just like in The Alchemist, it is all YOU. We always search outside ourselves when the answers are always inside of us and in our hearts. 

Bonus!

In Gone With the Wind, protagonist Scarlet has a dream where she’s running through thick fog, scared because she can’t see anything. She’s panicked—that used to be me. I didn’t know where I was going, I couldn’t see because the fog was covering my path. The clearing of the fog was the people surrounding me and holding my hand, like my family and Leonardo. Just by being there for me and gently holding my hand, they showed me there was a path and a space and place for me to thrive. 

So you know what really made all the difference? Gone With the Wind.

Just kidding, it was the people. 

And what was happening the entire time unconsciously? I was continuing to learn, grow and discover myself, personally and professionally. I don’t know what else has happened in the past or what’s happening now that will set me up and surprise me again for my future, but I don’t worry about it because I trust that this is where I need to be. 

Even if it’s not in Mykonos right now. 

At Culture Shift Team, my team and I try to clear the multicultural marketing and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) fog for you. You can contact us here to book a consult, so we can discover how we can best help you and your company’s clarity. 

P.S. I did make it to Mykonos in 2008!