The Dance of Confidence and Openness: A Business Owner's Approach to Spiritual Growth
Entrepreneurship • May 19, 2026 12:03:50 PM • Written by: Erin Aquin
I believe business is a spiritual practice of the highest order.
I have been to hundreds of workshops, spent weeks on retreat and studied with some of the best spiritual teachers in a wide variety of traditions. They all taught something important.
But owning a business is still probably the place I have learned the most about myself, even when I didn't want to.
I am sure other business owners can relate.
Running a company shows you how much you believe in yourself and your ideas. It dares you to hold a Vision for what you are putting into the world long before it is successful or even real to other people.
You need to have tremendous confidence in order to invest the kind of time, energy and resources it takes to make a business go.
And at the same time, to be successful in the long-term, you also need a healthy amount of openness and curiosity... the kind that helps you stay open to feedback from your clients, your team and your coaches even on the days you feel frustrated that you didn't hit your target or get the same results you got last year.
While many business coaches talk about building confidence as if that is the only thing that matters, I tend to focus on the spiritual dance between confidence and open curiosity. Some might use the word "humility" but for me that always brings up images of someone cowering and meek, which isn't the same thing.
Learning the spiritual position of being openly curious is not passive. Instead it relates to a setback by saying, "What is in this for me to learn and grow from?"
Within my own business, I call this "$10,000 Learnings" and I think of it as a spiritual exercise.
For instance, let's say a launch doesn't yield the revenue I had projected, instead of letting the part of myself that is ready to have a Boss Baby tantrum about it, I put that part of myself to work with these steps:
I have been to hundreds of workshops, spent weeks on retreat and studied with some of the best spiritual teachers in a wide variety of traditions. They all taught something important.
But owning a business is still probably the place I have learned the most about myself, even when I didn't want to.
I am sure other business owners can relate.
Running a company shows you how much you believe in yourself and your ideas. It dares you to hold a Vision for what you are putting into the world long before it is successful or even real to other people.
You need to have tremendous confidence in order to invest the kind of time, energy and resources it takes to make a business go.
And at the same time, to be successful in the long-term, you also need a healthy amount of openness and curiosity... the kind that helps you stay open to feedback from your clients, your team and your coaches even on the days you feel frustrated that you didn't hit your target or get the same results you got last year.
While many business coaches talk about building confidence as if that is the only thing that matters, I tend to focus on the spiritual dance between confidence and open curiosity. Some might use the word "humility" but for me that always brings up images of someone cowering and meek, which isn't the same thing.
Learning the spiritual position of being openly curious is not passive. Instead it relates to a setback by saying, "What is in this for me to learn and grow from?"
Within my own business, I call this "$10,000 Learnings" and I think of it as a spiritual exercise.
For instance, let's say a launch doesn't yield the revenue I had projected, instead of letting the part of myself that is ready to have a Boss Baby tantrum about it, I put that part of myself to work with these steps:
- Start with a full debrief of what might have gone wrong.
2. Take the things I have direct control over and put systems or plans in place to improve them next time.
3. Ask "What is the $10,000 Learning here?" i.e. what did I learn that will be worth real money in client experience, systems or as it relates to our team? Money earned or money saved counts.
4. Only then do I go through our signature Superabound process of HEAL-ing Static (our method of digesting and moving through tough emotions, which you can find in our bestselling book Superabound)
But it is harder to go back and get the raw feedback when you are no longer in the Static of the experience. My approach is to let that Static inform you and support you. If you wait until you feel better, you might never go back and reflect and therefore miss something important.
In fact, I think it is a sign of deep confidence to be able to look into a trouble spot in your business without the fear of tearing yourself down or connecting your self-worth to a revenue miss.
And just like meditation or other spiritual practice, thinking about it doing it isn't going to help you get the benefit. The dance of confidence and open curiosity is not something you can do in your mind.
In fact, I think it is a sign of deep confidence to be able to look into a trouble spot in your business without the fear of tearing yourself down or connecting your self-worth to a revenue miss.
And just like meditation or other spiritual practice, thinking about it doing it isn't going to help you get the benefit. The dance of confidence and open curiosity is not something you can do in your mind.
You have to practice it to get the benefit.
And trust me, knowing that you can hold the successes and the hard moments without being tossed around too much emotionally is worth the initial discomfort of learning how to do it.
My 5 Day to Superabound Success experience will give you the skills to develop both more confidence and open curiosity in your business and life. Get it free for a short time here.
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