This past week has been a lot like that old TV show “This is Your Life”.
To start with, we had out of town guests. It was my job to play tour guide in New 
York City, specifically lower Manhattan. This is significant because I spent 15 years working on Wall Street, playing at the South Street Seaport, eating in Chinatown and living in Greenwich Village. By the way, that’s me in front of the New York Stock Exchange. I worked there for 10 years. While I live very close to NYC, since I left my “JOB” and started CarrieThru (in 2002) I have spent very little time in lower Manhattan.
After our guests left it was time to get my daughter to the program she’s doing this summer. It’s an amazing program on Global Entrepreneurship and it’s being held at Lehigh University…my alma mater. I graduated 25 years ago…and other than visiting the college with Sammi this year as she looks at colleges for herself, I hadn’t been back there.
So why am I sharing this with you?
As I wandered through 20 years of my life I started thinking about the journey I have been on. I thought back to my first days at Lehigh then my first job on Wall Street. I remembered moving into my first apartment in the Village, deciding to get married, having children and commuting to Wall Street. Shortly after 9/11, I left the “working world” and started my own business. Since I started CarrieThru there have been many more steps along my path. Watching my children grow up, watching my business change and grow, choosing mentors and letting some go, watching my clients change and grow.
The path I have been on has been far from straight. There have been many twists and turns. What hasn’t changed during this journey is that every step along the way there have been decisions to make. Some of the decisions were small but many were really big. Some of the decisions that I made were spot on while others were disappointing. What’s really interesting is that oftentimes it isn’t until we look back that we realize the magnitude of our decisions.
It is that series of decisions that has led me along this journey and has brought me to exactly where I am today.
As I sat at the orientation meeting for Sammi’s program at Lehigh the other day (in my old Economics 101 class room) the speaker posed a question. He asked the students what makes an entrepreneur. There were a wide range of answers but here’s what it came down to. An entrepreneur is someone who decides to take a product or idea that inspires the way people think or behave to the world.
It’s all about deciding. An entrepreneur isn’t an entrepreneur until he or she decides to do something with their idea. What will you decide to do today?
Hi Carrie,
Last week, my position was eliminated along with more than a dozen others at the company where I’d spent the last five years. Although it was a definite shock, I feel as though I’ve been given a gift to really focus on getting my business, Studio 4 PR, for creative entrepreneurs off the ground.
So, what I have decided to do today is to reach out to my contacts and let them know I’m available for freelance PR and writing opportunities, research networking events, conferences, and classes where I can interact and learn from the people who are my ideal clients, and make a commitment to do something every day that moves me a little closer to making my dream a reality.
I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the reminder that I need to actually do something with my idea.
Robin
Hey Robin…
Yes you need to do something and when I checked out your website I see you already have! Congratulations! Can’t wait to see where this next step of your journey leads you.