Last Lecture

To those of you who have an entrepreneurial heart and are getting ready to begin your own journey, I would offer 3 pieces of advice. First, choose something about which you are truly passionate. Second, find a mentor who will be able to offer advice along the way, who can be your cheerleader and sounding board, and who likes you for you rather than your money or possessions. Third, evaluate what matters most in your life and set clear rules and boundaries for how you will behave in your career and how you will manage your time.

Finding something about which you are truly passionate may take a long time, or you may already know exactly what you’d like to do. In my own experience, I’ve found that if I think something is beautiful, interesting, or amazing, someone else is likely to consider it so, as well. The key to having your passion become a successful business is figuring out if someone would be willing to pay you to make or do something beautiful, interesting or amazing.

After about a year of running my small, online craft shop, I was blessed to get some great advice from an old friend. She told me, “Caitlin, you aren’t charging enough for your products. Your time is worth much more than what you’re charging. Not everyone can do what you do, and you could probably increase your prices by 100% and still have enough customers who are willing to pay it.” She works in marketing, so she definitely knew what she was talking about. I decided to follow her advice and I raised all my prices. That year, I made almost twice as much as I had the year before, and I was busier than ever. I just needed someone to say that I could do it! Finding a mentor who knows and understands what makes you tick, who will tell you what you need to know, even if you don’t always want to hear it, and who will still be your friend if everything falls apart, will be one of the greatest moves you can make.

Finally, I hope you can understand that money is not the most important thing in your life. It may be family, education, service, friends, religion, or any other good thing, but just acquiring money will not bring true and lasting happiness. Figuring out what is most important to you will help to shape your entrepreneurial journey and define your success. Setting boundaries that you won’t cross in any circumstance will help you to avoid the slippery slope of small infractions that can lead to life-altering decisions. Balancing your time so that you have enough time to focus on what is most important will keep your creativity from growing stale, and will help you to perform better in all aspects of your life.

Hopefully these three pieces of advice will help you as you begin, so that you can find fulfillment along the way, and avoid major heartbreak.