Spoiler: We’re All Just Figuring It Out.

I think we all have a picture in our heads of what a “successful” organization looks like. Smooth operations, confident decision-making, strong leadership, stable staffing, predictable revenue, happy clients. The kind of place where everyone knows their job, does it well, and communicates flawlessly.

And then there’s real life.

Real life is messier.
Real life is imperfect.
Real life is trying to fix a billing workflow while also juggling two staff outages, a frustrated provider, a payer system glitch, and three competing priorities that all feel urgent.

I used to think the mess meant I was doing something wrong.

I grew up in the middle of a messy divorce, with the house going up for sheriff’s sale and my mom working two jobs just to keep us moving forward. I didn’t know we were struggling at the time,  I just knew we kept going. Later I realized I learned something important through that: how to function during uncertainty. How to keep showing up when the situation isn’t ideal. How to stay with the problem instead of running from it.

That skill translates directly into business.

My business hasn’t grown because everything went right. It’s grown because I’ve learned how to keep going when things didn’t.

I’ve written contracts wrong.
I’ve trusted the wrong people.
I’ve tried to please clients who were never going to be pleased.
I’ve overworked, overthought, and pushed myself to exhaustion more times than I want to admit.

And I’m not past those patterns. I’m working on them daily.

I still people-please more than I should.
I still carry stress longer than is helpful.
I can be quick to frustration and slow to extend grace to myself.

But here’s the other side of that truth:

I’ve built something I’m proud of.

A remote company of 25–30 people.
A business that stayed valuable through payer chaos and staff turnover.
Clients who have come to us because we don’t sugarcoat or pretend and because we take accountability even for mistakes.

And we have done all of that inside the mess, not outside of it.

Because the myth is that successful organizations are smooth.
The truth is that successful organizations are resilient.

They regroup.
They recalibrate.
They learn.
They get up and try again sometimes tired, sometimes unsure, but still moving.

Most of what looks “put together” from the outside is just practice.
Practice showing up.
Practice adjusting.
Practice having the hard conversations instead of avoiding them.

So if your organization feels messy that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
It means you could be building something real.

I want people to know it is not all rainbows and unicorns.
There are days when it’s frustrating.
There are days when you question everything.
And there are days when something small goes right and you feel like you can breathe again.

Messy does not have to be a disaster.
Messy is where clarity forms.
Messy is where the next level of leadership grows.
Messy is where the real work happens.

We’re all just figuring it out.
Your mess doesn’t disqualify you it’s shaping you.

And sometimes, that’s where the real success begins.