Entrepreneurship: The Most Spiritual Journey I Never Expected

When most people think about a spiritual journey, they probably don't think about owning a business.

They think about meditation.

Yoga.

Retreats.

Prayer.

Maybe sitting quietly somewhere beautiful, trying to find inner peace.

I certainly never thought entrepreneurship would become one of my greatest spiritual teachers.

But after more than two decades of building Joya, I can tell you this:

Entrepreneurship has been one of the most spiritual journeys of my life.

Not because running a business is peaceful.

Quite the opposite.

It's because business has a way of bringing everything in you to the surface.

Your fears.

Your insecurities.

Your need for control.

Your relationship with money.

Your relationship with failure.

Your need for approval.

Your ability to trust yourself.

Your willingness to take risks.

Your attachment to outcomes.

And perhaps most importantly, your belief about who you are.

Your Business Becomes a Mirror

When I first became an entrepreneur, I thought I was building a business.

What I didn't realize was that the business was also building me.

Every challenge revealed something.

Every difficult employee.

Every financial setback.

Every expansion.

Every failure.

Every risk.

Every moment when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

They all became mirrors.

And that is one of the greatest spiritual lessons entrepreneurship has taught me:

Life isn't just happening to you. It's revealing you.

It's easy to believe we're doing great inner work when everything around us is going well.

Then something happens.

Revenue drops.

Someone quits.

A plan you've spent months working on falls apart.

You make the wrong decision.

Someone criticizes you.

Suddenly, all that inner peace gets tested.

That's where the real spiritual work begins.

Not on the meditation cushion.

In the moment when everything isn't going according to plan.

The Need to Control

One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn as an entrepreneur is that I cannot control everything.

And believe me, I've tried.

As entrepreneurs, we love a plan.

We forecast.

We strategize.

We create goals.

We try to anticipate every possible outcome.

And there is nothing wrong with any of that.

But life has repeatedly taught me that I can do everything "right" and still have absolutely no control over what happens next.

I've lived through recessions.

I've lived through COVID.

I've had businesses succeed and businesses close.

I've watched plans I was certain would work completely fall apart.

And I've watched opportunities I could never have planned appear seemingly out of nowhere.

Eventually, you learn the difference between taking responsibility and trying to control the Universe.

My responsibility is to show up.

To lead.

To make decisions.

To take action.

To serve people well.

To keep learning.

To listen to my intuition.

And then, at some point, I have to release the outcome.

That is surrender.

And surrender may be one of the hardest spiritual practices there is.

Failure Will Introduce You to Yourself

Entrepreneurship will also completely change your relationship with failure.

Because if you stay in business long enough, you will fail.

Probably many times.

I've made decisions I wish I could take back.

I've trusted the wrong people.

I've invested money in things that didn't work.

I've opened locations that succeeded and locations that didn't.

I've had moments when I questioned everything.

But I've come to understand that failure isn't the opposite of success.

Failure is often part of the initiation into it.

Some of the greatest lessons of my life came from the things that didn't work.

They humbled me.

They redirected me.

They made me stronger.

They forced me to become more creative.

And sometimes they made me finally listen to the quiet voice inside me that I had been ignoring.

You Cannot Build Beyond Who You Believe You Are

Eventually, I began to realize something else.

There was a connection between what I was creating externally and what was happening internally.

Our beliefs influence our decisions.

Our fears influence the risks we're willing to take.

Our self-worth influences what we're willing to receive.

Our identity influences what we believe is possible.

This is why I believe personal development and business development eventually become the same conversation.

You can learn another marketing strategy.

Create another plan.

Hire another consultant.

Work another ten hours.

But eventually, your business will bring you back to you.

Who are you being?

What do you believe?

What are you afraid of?

Where are you holding yourself back?

Where are you trying to prove yourself?

Where are you making decisions from fear rather than trust?

And what is this experience trying to show you?

Those questions have transformed the way I lead.

The People Are Part of the Practice

Owning Joya has also given me one of the greatest spiritual classrooms imaginable:

People.

Thousands and thousands of people over the years.

Employees.

Teachers.

Managers.

Members.

Partners.

Friends.

Some relationships have been incredibly beautiful.

Others have challenged me deeply.

But all of them have taught me something.

Leadership has taught me compassion.

Boundaries.

Forgiveness.

Discernment.

Patience.

Communication.

And the uncomfortable realization that I cannot always make everyone happy.

That one took me a while.

You can lead with love and still disappoint someone.

You can make the best decision you know how to make and someone can still disagree with you.

You can have good intentions and still make mistakes.

At some point, leadership asks you to stop needing everyone to approve of you.

You listen.

You learn.

You take responsibility when you've gotten something wrong.

And then you trust yourself enough to keep going.

That is spiritual growth too.

Success Changes Meaning

Something else happens after you've been an entrepreneur long enough.

Your definition of success begins to change.

In the beginning, success can look like numbers.

Revenue.

Locations.

Growth.

Recognition.

Achievement.

And yes, those things still matter. A business has to be financially healthy to survive.

But they're no longer enough for me.

Today I ask different questions.

Are we making people's lives better?

Are we creating a place where people feel connected?

Are we helping people become healthier—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

Am I building something that reflects who I actually am?

Am I enjoying the life I've worked so hard to create?

Because there is no point in building a successful business if you lose yourself while building it.

Maybe Your Greatest Challenge Is Also Your Greatest Teacher

You don't have to own a business for any of this to apply to you.

Your spiritual teacher may be your career.

Your marriage.

Your children.

Your health.

Your finances.

A loss.

A transition.

Or the season of life you're in right now.

The question isn't whether life will challenge you.

It will.

The question is:

What is this experience revealing about me?

Instead of immediately asking:

"Why is this happening to me?"

Try asking:

"What is this here to teach me?"

"Who am I being asked to become?"

That small shift can change everything.

After all these years, I don't believe spirituality is something separate from everyday life.

It is everyday life.

It's how we respond when things don't go our way.

It's how we treat people.

It's how we handle fear.

It's how we lead.

It's how we forgive.

It's how we get back up.

It's how we learn to trust ourselves.

And it's how we continue becoming more fully who we really are.

Looking back, I thought I was building Joya.

But in so many ways...

Joya was building me.

And for that, I will always be grateful.

‍

With love,

Deanna