WELL-BEING AND BUSINESS

Happy Sunday company!

Today, I'd like to talk to you about entrepreneurship, and more specifically about well-being within it. Because I know it's a subject that resonates with you, but also because talking about it here allows me to take a step back...

You know, Make My Lemonade, Wear Lemonade, the Lemonade Studio... All these things that have happened to me are not the result of learned calculations, but rather of a series of events, of happy sequences that I may or may not have caused. So I wanted to tell you that in 2012, when I opened the first version of Make My Lemonade, I hadn't at all anticipated that it would become a business, giving work to people, inspiring others, raising funds to access even bigger dreams.

And then, I don't know if I didn't have a little idea in the back of my head back in 2012... Let's just say I was trying something out, pushing open a door to see if I could find the space to realize myself behind it. As I often say, when I started working in a ready-to-wear boutique, in the morning, when I got up to go and sell clothes, I wanted to run away far away, to a place where I could sell the clothes I'd designed. But then, I was 19 and I quickly silenced that little voice that said "you'll die out soon if you have to get up all your life to work for someone else". But where did that voice come from? I think that for a long time I heard family friends, or even people around me, saying that my generation was going to have it rough, that companies wouldn't be able to offer us what they had. I heard people complaining about the bad relationships they had at work, with no prospect of improvement. Waiting for RTT, long live retirement! Well, when I was a teenager and a young adult, it was hard to imagine that I'd have to spend my life wearing myself out in a company that didn't understand me, only to retire one day and start enjoying it.

It was a bit of a blur. I wanted to say, but you realize that I'm already gigantically messy and that your paper is a miracle if I manage to keep it untorn for 2 weeks, but I'd have to keep this thing for 45 years? That would mean I'd have to get up every morning and work for someone else, in the hope of collecting enough papers for my retirement. Really? Well, no.

So I quickly realized the urgent need to find a creative job, which I was lucky enough to find quickly. I worked for 3 completely different companies, of different sizes, in different fashion sectors. I met lots of great people, and some not so great. And during these 3 experiences, in addition to earning a living and collecting my precious pension contribution papers, I observed a lot, and learned a lot about human relations at work.

In my first experience, I had a great time in a big, happy team in which everyone was friends, or at least collaborated harmoniously together, was keen to make everyday life fun because we worked crazy hours, but thinking about a social life was complicated.

In the second company, all hell broke loose. I left the happy gang for a dictatorship. I was morally abused, which made me physically ill. But I learned one precious thing: I would never be treated like that again, and I would never put anyone through that in my life.

I left the second company for the third, which was smaller and also more family-oriented, and it was there that I had the space to make Make My Lemonade possible too. Looking back now, there were still things I felt were unfair, but I realize as a business owner myself that it wasn't anything against me, it was just that the company couldn't do otherwise.

I won't go into the details, but you get the general idea. Then one day, with Make My Lemonade taking up more and more space, I took the crazy gamble of telling myself that I had to go for it. It was a good idea, and even if the road is long and sometimes winding, I don't regret having taken it. I no longer think about the retirement papers I have to keep, I don't even really think about getting rich, but above all about fulfilling myself. So I left the corporate world to jump into entrepreneurship with both feet, and to create, by juxtaposing my past experiences, the company for which I would want to get up in the morning and go to work.

And I've also tried to learn from the business experiences I've had. There's another detail that I didn't see coming, but today we're a team, and in this team there are people who all have different personalities and experiences, which we have to take into account, listen to, sound out and observe to try and keep a nice harmony in the office. I'm also happy to see that friendships are forming, and that there's goodwill between us all. I'm also working on a project myself, and I try not to let my anxieties and stress interfere with the atmosphere, because in the end we spend most of our time together, so we live in a community, the "lemon community". And from what I've been able to see through my past experiences, this balance is fragile but essential to the well-being and success of the company... I'd like us to do more things together that aren't just office-related, to celebrate small victories. I'm not really giving you any keys, but you need to listen to the people who work with you, and try not to complain any more, but to find solutions to make your day-to-day life more pleasant. And if the changes needed to make you happy in your company are too structural, get moving and stop waiting for the next RTT like the messiah. I'm not telling you to give up everything and become your own boss, but ask yourself if you're happy to get up in the morning and go to work, and if you're not, are you willing to carry on like this until you retire, to start fulfilling yourself?