Reflections on Four Years of Entrepreneurship, Ancestral Wisdom, and the Art of Receiving
Today marks the fourth anniversary of my private practice.
Four years.
I feel deeply honored and proud to have been in business for myself for four years. It has certainly been a journey, and entrepreneurship is nothing if not a roller coaster ride! There have been incredible highs, unexpected challenges, moments of uncertainty, and experiences of profound joy.
As I reflect on this milestone, one theme keeps returning to me: the art of receiving through divine means.
As I have shared before, asking for help has not always been easy for me. In fact, asking has been a source of trauma. There have been times when I asked specific people for help and was met with shame or humiliation. I was told that my asking was inappropriate or that needing assistance was a sign of weakness. At other times, the help I received was later weaponized against me. What was initially offered as kindness became something used to hurt me. Over time, I learned to be cautious about asking.
Yet human beings need help. We are relational beings. We are not designed to navigate every challenge alone. And certainly, as a business owner, a mother, and a woman navigating life’s many responsibilities, there have been times when I have needed support.
The last several months have been particularly challenging. Yet these experiences have also deepened my faith in a process I have come to practice: Ask. Send. Continue. Receive.
The process is remarkably simple in theory. First, I ask for what I want or need. Then, I send that intention into the world. I communicate it. I speak it. I allow it to exist beyond the confines of my own thoughts. Next, I continue. I keep moving forward in the direction of my goals, taking the steps that are within my control. And finally, I receive. I welcome what comes.
Simple, right? Not exactly.
Because this process requires discipline, faith, trust, patience, and perhaps most importantly, an openness to receiving something that may look entirely different from what I expected.
Learning to Ask Differently
Asking has taken on a new meaning for me. I no longer always direct my requests toward specific people. Instead, I often ask what I call Universal Source. God. Nature. The divine intelligence that I believe moves through and connects all living things.
Sometimes my asking takes the form of prayer. Sometimes it is an intention spoken aloud. Other times, it is simply acknowledging a need and allowing myself to share it with others. That is part of how I send.
And then comes the practice of continuing. This is where faith, trust, and patience become essential. I cannot control when or how support will arrive. I cannot dictate who will offer it or what form it will take. But I can continue living, working, creating, and moving toward what matters to me.
What I have noticed is that help often arrives in ways I could never have anticipated. Sometimes, what comes is even more useful or meaningful than what I originally imagined. And that brings me to perhaps the most challenging part of this practice.
Receiving.
Receiving is an art in and of itself.
Because of my history with asking, there is still a part of me that instinctively wants to decline unexpected assistance. I can find myself questioning someone’s intentions or hesitating when help appears seemingly out of the blue. Even when I have been asking for precisely that kind of support!
I am learning that receiving requires both an open heart and discernment. It does not mean accepting every offer or abandoning my boundaries. It means allowing myself to recognize genuine generosity without automatically assuming there must be a hidden cost.
I have also come to understand something else. What I experience as divine support often comes through other people. Through inspiration. Through kindness. Through love. Through someone feeling moved to offer what they know, what they have, or what they can do.
When I allow myself to receive that generosity, I am also honoring the divine force I believe is working through them.
This past weekend offered me a beautiful reminder.
The Women Who Came Before Me
On November 1, I spent time celebrating the life of my great-grandmother, Mary Wade Woodson, who was born on that day in 1888.
My great-grandmother was a brilliant and creative woman whose life unfolded in a world that placed enormous restrictions on the educational and professional opportunities available to Black women. She was born during the post-Reconstruction era, when the possibilities that would eventually become available to her descendants were far beyond what she could reasonably expect for herself.
Yet she nurtured creativity. She was a tremendous supporter of my mother and her writing.
During the summers of the 1950s and 1960s, my mother would visit her grandmother’s home in the country. She would sit at the table and tell her grandmother about her newest stories and creative ideas. And my great-grandmother listened. She encouraged her. She believed in her imagination. She made room for her dreams.
My mother went on to become the first person in her family to attend college and later the first to earn a doctoral degree.
As I reflected on these women, I thought about the extraordinary inheritance they passed down. My great-grandmother Mary Wade Woodson. My grandmother Edith. My mother, Dr. Dianne Swann Wright. Three women whose encouragement, sacrifice, creativity, and determination helped make my own life possible.
I know that without them, I would not be the writer, entrepreneur, or woman I am today. Their support continues to live through me.
And on Sunday, while I was honoring their legacy, something unexpected happened.
An Unexpected Conversation
I brought my mother’s book with me to my son Leo’s swim practice so that I could read more stories about my great-grandmother. It felt like a meaningful way to continue honoring her life and learning more about the woman whose love and encouragement had shaped so much of my family’s history.
While I was there, I sat beside the father of one of Leo’s best friends, Mr. Simpson. We began talking and getting to know each other.
I shared a little about my background, including my years teaching biology in Baltimore City. He and his wife were also from Maryland, so we had that connection. I told him about my journey from teaching in the inner city to becoming a therapist, moving to Hawaiʻi, establishing my private practice, and eventually returning to a quiet country town in Virginia.
We talked about our children, our experiences, and the paths that had brought us to this particular moment.
Toward the end of our conversation, I mentioned that I had written a book. And immediately, a familiar thought appeared.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging.
But I had already said it. And then something remarkable happened.
His eyes widened. He looked genuinely surprised.
“I’m a graphic designer, and I help people get their books published!”
Now it was my turn to look stunned.
What were the odds?
Here I was, sitting at my son’s swim practice, having an ordinary conversation with another parent, only to discover that he had experience with the very technical publishing processes I had been trying to understand.
He began sharing information about independent publishing, formatting, preparing manuscripts for print, uploading books to publishing platforms, and even audiobook production. These were precisely the areas where I had been considering whether I might need assistance.
And he offered to help.
I could hardly believe the timing.
You see, I had been spending considerable time thinking about how to bring my book into the world while maintaining ownership of my creative vision. I had written the manuscript. I was learning about cover design. I was exploring the publishing process and considering how I wanted to produce the audiobook.
I wanted to remain the creator of my work, but I also recognized that there were technical skills I could benefit from learning from someone else.
And there, at swim practice, was someone who knew about those very things.
I had not gone to the pool looking for publishing assistance. I had not asked Mr. Simpson to solve a problem for me. I had simply shared what I was creating.
I sent the message.
And an unexpected possibility appeared. I do not yet know what, if anything, will come from that conversation. But I do know that it reminded me of something important.
Sometimes receiving begins with allowing ourselves to be seen. Sometimes it begins with speaking about our dreams without apologizing for having them. And sometimes the person sitting beside us has something meaningful to offer that we could never have anticipated.
The Art of Receiving
As I reflect on four years of entrepreneurship, I realize how much my relationship with asking and receiving has changed.
Building a business has required me to learn things I did not know, navigate challenges I could not predict, and make decisions without always knowing how things would turn out. There have been times when I have felt overwhelmed. Times when resources were limited. Times when I wondered how I would manage the next obstacle.
Yet I have also experienced extraordinary generosity, encouragement, inspiration, and support. Not always from the people I expected. Not always in the form I imagined. And certainly not always on my preferred timeline!
But help has come.
I am learning that independence does not have to mean isolation. Being capable does not mean I must do everything alone. And receiving assistance does not diminish my accomplishments or take away my ownership of what I create.
I can be the author of my own life and still welcome the people who help me along the way.
Perhaps that is one of the most meaningful lessons these four years have taught me.
Receiving does not make me less powerful. It allows me to participate more fully in the relationships and possibilities that surround me.
Today, I celebrate four years of working for myself. Four years of directing my own path. Four years of learning, growing, making mistakes, finding solutions, and discovering what it means to build a life and a business that reflect who I am.
I love what I do. I love being a creator. I love the opportunity to support others in their own journeys of healing and transformation. And I am deeply grateful for the people, experiences, and unexpected moments of inspiration that have helped me along the way.
To the women who came before me, who made room for dreams they might never personally realize: thank you.
To the people who have offered genuine kindness and support: thank you.
And to the lessons that continue to teach me how to trust, discern, and receive: thank you.
The journey continues.
Ask. Send. Continue. Receive.
Powerfully.
by, Ellen Swann Wright
all copy and photography copyrighted by Ellen S. Wright