Wanted: Cathedral Builders

There is an old parable I’ve heard many times about the importance of perspective. It describes how three stonecutters, doing the same exact task, viewed their job completely differently and how their perspective made a huge difference in their personal happiness and motivation. It goes something like this….

One day in the 14th century, a man asked three stonecutters to describe their job.

• The first stonecutter replied with great bitterness, “I am cutting this stone into blocks.

• The second stonecutter replied with no emotion, “I am building an arch.

• The third stonecutter replied with great pride, “I am building a cathedral.”

Entrepreneurship, I have found from even my short experience, is not for stone cutters. I compare many of the tasks I am doing myself now to what I did as a corporate Vice President and laugh. Order my own office supplies? Track my own expenses? Make my own copies? If I took a lot of the work I do daily on a literal basis, I could get bogged down and lose the meaning of the work. These tasks are necessary, and when you’re a 1 person show with limited budget, you do them – all of them.

But that’s not what I’m really doing. I am creating something. Something big. Something I believe Moms need. Something I believe Moms want. They may not even know they want it (though every Mom I’ve talked to about MomsOutLoud.com has gotten “it” immediately), but once they have it, they won’t be able to live without it. That’s what I believe.

I am now trying to staff a small team to help me build Moms Out Loud. For the most part, I am finding people who believe the vision, who believe what we are building is going to be huge and will create a tighter community of Moms in North Texas than existed before – or could exist without something like MomsOutLoud.com.

And these are the people Moms Out Loud needs. The people who will jump in and do whatever task is needed to build the cathedral. The people who will look at a pile of papers that need to be consolidated into a media kit, or a contact log that needs to be managed, and tackle it – all while keeping the perspective of the bigger picture of what we’re building. Here’s to my cathedral builders who’ve signed up so far: Leanne, Donna, Jennifer, Monica, Adonia, Heather, Stephanie, and Missy.

But you know what else Moms Out Loud needs – and in fact, won’t succeed without? Our beta-Moms. Moms who believe that they have something important to share with other Moms: their experience. Moms who want to make the path through motherhood easier for other Moms by sharing their lessons. Moms who want to meet each other because they know this journey is a lot more fun when you’ve got some good friends beside you who can entertain you with a funny story, listen when you need to vent, or maybe even watch your kids when you need a night out with your husband.

So, to all you beta-Moms out there – remember, we’re building a cathedral! There might be some tedious block-cutting along the way (writing your xth review for your kids’ last birthday party place, trying to remember your favorite goodnight book for your pre-schooler), but in the end, we will have something beautiful that will help others. I hope you share the vision!