I still remember the snickering remark.

It was at the end of a conversation with a client from my previous business.

He’d listened to my podcast and, almost casually, laughed at me for calling myself an entrepreneur.

In that moment, I felt the weight of every doubt I’d ever had about claiming that title. Because let’s be honest—when you’re in the trenches without a thriving business or employees to manage, calling yourself an entrepreneur can feel like wearing a badge you haven’t earned.

But here’s what I’ve understood.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t about having already arrived. It’s about putting action over results.

Yes, sales matter. Clients matter. The numbers matter eventually.

But the entrepreneurial spirit?

It lives through taking risks when the outcome is uncertain.

Showing up day after day knowing this is a long haul, not a sprint.

Any struggling solopreneur dreams of that overnight success story, the moment everything clicks into place and the doors all open.

But before any of that happens, before the validation and the revenue and the recognition, action is the only measure of progress.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t a title you earn like a diploma, nor is it something you’re born with. It’s something you build piece by piece, proof by proof.

It’s constructed through risk-taking, through experimentation, through failing and trying again. It’s about taking things as slowly as they need to go, or making jump before you feel ready.

I know the badge isn’t waiting for me at some finish line. I’m building it right now, with every action that’ll move me forward.

So, here’s what I want to say: I’ll wear the title. It’s fine. Not because someone rewarded me with it. But because I’m putting in the work, one piece at a time.

If midlife is supposed to be the moment when everything is figured out and settled, from where I stand it feels more like the moment I need to shake things up if I want a life well lived.

A life well lived? What does that even mean?

For me, it has always meant a balance between not wasting my potential, enjoying life on my own terms (and not according to someone else’s schedule or plans) and leaving a legacy aligned with my values.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve been circling around solopreneurship. Around the promises it offers.

But somehow, despite going through different iterations, I always postponed the big goals I set for myself.

Returning to the 9 to 5 life, at 45, with all its demands and limitations, was the slapping wake up call I needed.

Why hadn’t I pushed myself harder when I was the boss of my own time and projects?

Why was it easier to be the MVP in someone else’s team, in a game I didn’t really want to play?

Why did it feel like I had so much more to offer than what this routine worklife was asking me to do?

Why, oh why, did I fail to go all in and follow through on something that could only belong to me?

The explanation surfaced like a shameful afterthought.

Lots of wanting, lots of planning, not enough doing.

You can’t get a different result by always doing the same thing.

A little bit of context

Between early December 2025 and late January 2026, I chose my three words of the year that would guide the way I wanted to move through 2026.

Those words were Action, Connection, Experimentation. ACE (forgive the cheesiness).

Their purpose : make me a builder, not just an observer, of my life.

Action.

As a serial course-consuming and shiny-object chasing solopreneur, I’ve felt like I’ve done nothing short of sabotaging my own success through waste of resources. Not the waste that comes from laziness. The one that comes from overthinking, doubting, and over-expecting from myself. The one that comes from taking in someone else’s blueprint for success and throwing in the bin my own ideas, without giving it a critical thought.

The truth? I can’t become the version of myself I believe I can be if I don’t put in the work first. And that means reducing the input and increasing the output.

Because no one ever became a good cook by stocking up on ingredients without ever doing the cooking, or by reading recipe books without ever (messily) testing one.

Sometimes burning a few dishes, throwing some away, and adjusting the recipe is the way to get it right on your own.

So “Action” remains my word to start doing “the doing”.

Connection.

Solopreneurship is a one-person orchestra, for better or for worse. You don’t want to have to manage a team or be responsible for other people’s livelihood, or deal with the costs of having a team. Maybe you don’t want to sort through unsolicited ideas or feedback. Probably you enjoy being free to work when and how it’s most convenient for you.

At least that’s how I see it and want to live it.

But the downside of all that? Doing it all A-L-O-N-E.

Alone during the strategizing.

Alone in the executing.

Alone with questions, and too many possible answers.

Alone in front of your computer at 10 pm, when you’ve finally “carved out time” to do the strategic thing that would move the needle.

“Connection” is my acknowledgement that I can’t go through it alone. I need to connect with like-minded people I can trust to advise me and offer honest, but not brutal, feedback.

But, also, I yearn for a community with whom I can discuss what I’ve already learned along the way. My hope is that with connection will come growth and deeper self-awareness.

Experimenting.

My favorite of the three words. As someone who loves a mental playground, the ability to test without expecting outside approval, without the pressure of performance or an outcome, has always mattered. Having an intuition and giving myself the freedom to follow it.

In my solopreneur adventures, the business advice that most resonated always put fun, curiosity and permission to experiment as basic foundations for playing the long game.

This Substack is my first step in giving myself the permission to follow an intuition.

The sandbox where I can create and follow the rules of my own game. Where I decide if and when to use the data later on, and which rules I want to keep playing by - choosing the ones that fill my cup, and letting the others go.

Sometimes, the best results come out of an experiment that went sideways.

In my life, the feelings of success and fulfillment have always come from doing the things I never got a permission slip for. It’s time for me to go back to that.

Why does any of this matter?

Somewhere down the path, I hope writing will help me :

• gain momentum in slow-building a solopreneur business, while managing mid-life obligations (i.e, the 9 to 5 job, raising kids, being a present wife, caring for myself, caring for friends and family)

• attract “my” people, the ones that will read me thinking “oh, you too?!” and maybe even comment on it; the fellow female solopreneurs (wannabe or established) with whom my writings will resonate.

My purpose wish is to create and ship out in the most frictionless, sustainable and energising way.

I’d love for this writing to become a ritual, a moment where I can meet with myself, recenter and gain clarity on next actionable steps, however small.

This is also about re-gaining self-confidence and proof that “yes, I can”. Not through the lens of an audience, not through the lens of some employer’s KPI’s, but through my own. It’s about having something to refer to as a way of measuring movement, as I’m defining who I want to be(come) over the next 10 to 20 years.

And lastly, if anything, maybe someone will read this and feel some parts resonate or inspire them, in some way, to take action and move the needle.

What this won’t be (for the time being anyway)

At the time of writing this article, this space is not meant to become some sort of business coaching space. There is a time and place for everything. I won’t say never, but right now, this is my humble space of writing, sharing, reflecting and hopefully connecting.

So, here’s the final word for today:

This is my stake in the ground about re-committing to my wannabe solopreneur life as a midlifer.

The wins. The woes. The whys and the hows.

It’s about committing to action.

Committing to connection.

Committing to experimentation.

With a whole lot of optimism, some likely imperfections.

And if anything, at least, comes out of this, it will bookmark a chapter that my past self would have liked to have read, and one on which my future self will reflect.

I’d love for you to be part of the journey. A companionship, of sorts.

Hope to see you down the road.

“There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

― Nelson Mandela

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