Fighting Forward: Finding Gratitude Amid Uncertainty as an Entrepreneur

Last year, when I made the decision to leave my full-time job, I envisioned a future where I’d have settled into a new role with a healthier relationship to my work and a renewed sense of stability. Yet here I am, still unemployed, navigating the uncertain and often daunting path of entrepreneurship. I didn’t anticipate staying with my partner longer than planned or the many moments of feeling untethered. Stability—financial, emotional, and otherwise—has felt elusive.

I recently came across a tweet that struck a chord deep within me. It said:
"I’ve fought hard this year, but it’s not really clear what I fought for."

Those words have been on a loop in my mind, perfectly capturing this season of my life. I hold immense gratitude for the opportunity to do what I do—teaching, creating, building—but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t yearn for the stability that comes with a steady income, health insurance, and a space of my own. There’s a part of me that wishes I had made different decisions, even though I know I made the best ones I could at the time.

It’s a world of uncertainty, and at times, I feel defeated. Over the past year, I’ve applied for more than 350 jobs across industries, hoping to find that next chapter. Some days, the rejections—or worse, the silence—feel insurmountable.

And yet, there are moments when clarity cuts through the fog. On Sunday, I taught two back-to-back yoga classes, worked the front desk for our sound ceremony, and helped prep for our center’s Friendsgiving celebration. In those moments, I caught a glimpse of what I’ve been fighting for—a space for people to simply be and to become. A place where healing, connection, and transformation are not just possibilities but realities.

This is my charge to keep, and in those fleeting moments of purpose, I feel gratitude swell alongside the uncertainty.

I don’t know what’s to come. The future feels overwhelming, but I remind myself that I am not yet overcome. My hope and prayer are that this moment will pass, and the seeds I’ve planted will yield a harvest of abundance—not just for me, but for the community we are building.

In gratitude, other emotions—fear, doubt, exhaustion—can also coexist, but they do not define me. For all of us standing on the bridge between what was and what could be, may we keep our heads high. The defeat has not defeated us. The loss has not lost us.

Let us continue forward with hope as our anchor. The fight may not always feel clear, but the vision of what could be makes it worth every step.

With gratitude and expectation,
Stephon J. Bradberry