Anja Christoffersen has made a major life change. Having spent the past three years building the Women with Disabilities Entrepreneur Network and social enterprise, Shh!t Happens, this Sunshine Coast-based leader stepped away from her business.

Why? Because, as the name of her company spells out: sh*it happens. 

Anja’s rare condition, VACTERL association, has seen her navigate health challenges since she was born. In recent months, these challenges have gone from manageable to critical. 

Just days before this interview, Anja had an appendicostomy. She’ll soon be seeking specialised support overseas, adding to her tally of 150-plus surgeries in the hope of saving her life. 

Anja’s lived experience inspired her to build a business that improves the lives of people living with chronic illness and disability. (Image credits: Supplied)

This awarded advocate and entrepreneur has always backed herself, be it in the board room or hospital bed. And now, that means stepping down from the business she’s poured her blood, sweat and personal story into. 

Here, Anja shares five revelations she’s had since handing over the reigns.

“Sometimes, leadership is actually stepping back”

I was so, so nervous to announce it. And I felt like I was letting absolutely everybody down. But then my community responded and I saw how supportive people were. I saw  that people understood that, sometimes, leadership is actually stepping back. And that’s something I never would have accepted previously. 

While making the decision to step back, I didn’t go to anyone for advice because I felt that element of shame – that it would be a personal failure of mine. There were a lot of tears behind the scenes and an increasing feeling that, not only am I letting my team down, but I’m letting my customers down. And all of the other advocacy work that I keep saying yes to, I’m letting them all down too, because my plate was just far too full. 

I’d been in this feeling of letting everyone down for about a year – and it was really taking a toll on me. I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it and crying my eyes out. And then I thought, no, something actually has to shift.

“It’s time for you to stop making those personal sacrifices”

When I told my team I was stepping back, it was easier for it to be a personal conversation. They’d known that I’d been struggling since I had a really bad aspiration pneumonia in April. I’ve been navigating new challenges since then – with no firm plan for remedies – so we just had that honest conversation. 

I said to them, “you know, I really just want to live my life. I’m spending all of my energy in this business. I want to spend my energy doing the things that I keep putting off”. 

 “The meaning of life isn’t to make millions of dollars. It’s human-to-human connection… And I’m neglecting that if I’m sitting on spreadsheets all the time.”

The Sunshine Coast has golf courses everywhere and I’d love to go and play a round of golf. Do I ever have the energy? No. So I think they really understood. They said, “yes, it’s time for you to stop making those personal sacrifices”.

When I was having this discussion with my team, I did think that we would probably close the business. I was so inspired by the fact that they said, “no, we can run this. We believe in this so, so much. We want to do this”.

“We can’t feel guilty for doing what we have to do.”

It’s never fun to walk away from something that you love and that you’re passionate about. It’s like the “sunk-cost fallacy” often used to describe women in their attitude to dating. We’ve invested this time and energy that we’re like, we have to see this through! 

I’ve put three years of my life into this. Walking away now, I’m probably the biggest idiot in the world. But I had to realise that, unfortunately, time was so precious for me that there’s no point just dragging it out.

For me, it actually is about life and death. And that is really scary and really difficult to reconcile. Parts of guilt that I’ve felt around leaving the business is I don’t want to shrink myself down. And I don’t want to just have my identity be about being sick and fighting for my life. But at the same time, part of backing yourself is actually stepping away and understanding your own needs. We can’t feel guilty for doing what we have to do. 

Anja’s business funds emergency toilet paper and dignity for those doing it tough. (Image credit: Supplied)

“There’s never going to be a point where it’s enough.”

We often focus on, “when we get to this point, we’ll be successful and we’ll be happy and everything will be sorted”. But the reality of being in business is there’s actually never a point that you reach where the stress goes away, or that it’s a success, or that it’s all perfect. 

I would have all these huge wins and it was just like, on to the next thing. It’s never enough – and there’s never going to be a point where it’s enough. There is always a huge to-do list. You’ll never get on top of it. And we can overwhelm ourselves with all of that so much that we don’t focus on living. We don’t focus on life. 

I’d lost so many connections with friends, family, everything. I just had my head down in the business. The meaning of life isn’t to make millions of dollars. It’s human-to-human connection – or so I’ve found, at least. And I’m neglecting that if I’m sitting on spreadsheets all the time. 

Now, I’m focusing on what I have achieved and on the experience of going through all of this. And because I know better, I’m trying not to feel like there’s this point in the future that I’ll never reach because I’m stepping away.

“I’m really proud that it can live on without me.”

I think the door will always be open – like, this business is my child. And mentally, for the moment, I’m still finding myself nervous about things like, oh my goodness, has this order gone out yet? Have we responded to this client? It’s almost like I’m trying to backseat drive a little bit now and I just need to let go. 

It does feel scary that I’m not there – because I’m a control freak. But it’s going to live on without me. And I’m really proud that it can live on without me. I built that trust – and I was very comfortable to say, yes, I’m stepping back, but you can still use my story. 

A lot of this brand has been built on my reputation and my networks. So the fear of the business failing now without me, and that being a reflection on me, is something that keeps me up at night. But ultimately, it is what it is. And I have full trust in my team. 

When I left, all of them sent me these long, beautiful messages. One in particular said: “You know, I came into this because I wanted to make a hell of a lot of money and I wanted to make this a big, huge company. And I stayed in it because I fell in love with the impact that we can make and the story and the reason behind it.” 

If I’m looking back at my achievements, that’s probably the biggest one. It’s hard to make people care. But they do, deeply.