It can actually work out

There’s a moment in business that almost nobody talks about: the moment right before things finally start working out.

It usually doesn’t look inspiring. It looks like exhaustion. Like moving pennies from one bank account to another just to make payroll or cover a check.

It looks like staring at negative balances while pretending not to panic. It looks like working all day, then working all night, then waking up to do it again anyway.

Most days start the same way: head down, boots on, grinding forward. One step, then another. Not glamorous. Not pretty. Just work. The kind where the struggle isn’t a phase — it’s the entire season. Climbing up, slipping back. Climbing again, sliding down. Hands a little dirtier each time, knees a little more worn, but still, up we go.

Because what’s the alternative? Sitting still? Waiting for some magical moment when everything suddenly falls into place? That’s not how it works. Not in business. Not in life. Not in anything worth building.

And then something strange happens.

Right when it feels like things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly get better.

One email comes through. One phone call. One “yes.”

And somehow, that single yes changes the trajectory of an entire week, maybe even an entire business.

What’s even stranger is how one yes tends to bring more yeses behind it. A buyer responds after months of silence. A meeting finally gets scheduled. Someone introduces someone else. Doors that felt bolted shut start cracking open all at once.

Is it the universe finally cooperating? Is it momentum? Is it years of effort finally paying off?

Probably all of it.

The funny thing is, while all those hard days are happening, it feels like nothing is working. Like every ounce of effort is disappearing into thin air. But under the surface, things are shifting quietly. Conversations start sounding different. People begin taking calls they once ignored. Opportunities start appearing where there used to be dead ends.

And then one day, the road levels out just enough to notice.

Not forever — let’s stay realistic — but long enough to breathe. Long enough to realize the forward motion isn’t just struggle anymore. It’s progress.

That’s the part people don’t talk about enough: the middle. The messy, exhausting, doubt-filled middle where quitting starts sounding reasonable. The season when getting out of bed feels like a negotiation.

But the work continues anyway. Show up. Make the call. Take the meeting. Fall down. Get back up. Repeat.

Because eventually, the no’s start turning into yeses.

Not because of luck alone. Not because somebody waved a magic wand. But because of all those unseen days when quitting would have been easier.

And maybe that’s the real lesson: Sometimes things are working out long before they look like they are.

Wendy Kushel is the owner of Wendala’s LowCountry Sugar Scrub, LLC based in Bluffton. Drawn to the beauty and personal care industry, Wendy founded her company in 2020. Her background includes stand-up comedy, film, TV and a lot of sales and marketing. For more information about Wendala’s® LowCountry Sugar Scrub visit www.lowcountrysugarscrub.com or call/text 843-949-8933.