(Un)Learning

(Un)Learning

Have I failed?

five years in business, am I another statistic?

Aug 24, 2025
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Hi, I’m Lee and I’m (un)learning in public. I talk about life and business, the BS that holds us back and the things that build us up again (in my case books, creative explorations and a dash of Murder, She Wrote). It’s lovely to have you here 😊

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Photoshoot day, five years ago, with a million change of clothes and a discovery that I can pull off red lipstick!

They say that almost 50% of new businesses fail before they hit the five-year mark.

My Facebook memories served up a reminder of me five years ago, on my first photoshoot, when I was prepping to launch my business sunday skies.

I think of me back then - nervous about shifting to be in front of the camera after a career of being firmly behind it, advising others about how to position themselves and get their message across.

I was pretty clear on my vision, what I wanted to convey in my photos, my branding, my website. But when it came to actually run a business, I hadn’t a clue.

Of course, I didn’t realise that then. I’d worked in multi-million pound companies and had spent a lifetime with annual business planning cycles and long-term strategy development; I didn’t think running my own show would be as hard. After all, I didn’t have to do everything by committee!

When I started the process of ripping up my business earlier this year, I went back to my first five-year plan. A plan, in theory, I should have completed by now.

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