15 years ago I became an entrepreneur by accident

Necessity made the decision for me, and the journey was nothing like I planned.

Hey, Friend!

I celebrated 15 years of entrepreneurship this week!

Now, it wasn't because I had some grand vision.

If I'm being honest, I never even thought about entrepreneurship as a career path until necessity made the decision for me.

As a military spouse facing constant moves, I needed a portable career that would let me do work that actually fulfilled me. So I built one.

I had no idea what that journey would look like or where it would take me, and 15 years later, I'm so grateful I took the leap.

But I won't lie and say it's been all sunshine and rainbows because It. Has. NOT.

Over the years I've started and run a virtual assistant company, a resume writing and career coaching practice, a leadership development firm and now I'm starting from scratch building my latest venture.

Four different brands and countless pivots in between.

Part of that is due to being a multi-passionate, neurodivergent person whose interests have evolved over time. But another part of it is that I was chasing success without knowing what that meant to me.

And in between all of it? I've been in and out of the workplace.

When the entrepreneurial success didn't look the way I thought it should, fear would send me back to the safety of a paycheck.

But I always felt the pull of creating in the way I felt called to. So I'd go back to building, often building someone else's dreams as an employee and my own dreams as a side hustle at the same time.

For years I thought that meant I was failing, that I should have figured it out by now.

But 15 years in the game has taught me otherwise.

1 | Thinking Out Loud

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to this journey.

Your path may look very different from the next person's and that's not a problem. That's the point.

Here are three things I know for sure after 15 years:

• Your why matters. When you're clear on why you do what you do, it becomes your North Star when things get hard and you want to quit. And things will get hard. Having a why that's bigger than the difficulty is what keeps you moving.
• Your calling can evolve. What you felt called to in one season may not be what you're called to in the next. That's not failure. That's growth. You're not handcuffed to one calling for life so give yourself grace and permission to pivot when the season shifts. I'm living proof.
• Entrepreneurship isn't the only path to your calling. Calling can take many forms: employee, founder, parent, teacher, pastor, creator and the list goes on. Entrepreneurship is only one means of bringing it to life. The title doesn't define you. What matters most is the calling itself. Keep your sights set on that.

2 | Try This

Take a few minutes this week to reflect on your own journey, whether it's been years or you're just getting started.

Ask yourself: am I pursuing my definition of success or someone else's? Is the path I'm on still aligned with why I started?

You don't need 15 years of hindsight to course correct. You just need the honesty to ask the question.

3 | Sit With This

If you're reading this and there's something you can't shake, something you keep circling back to no matter how many times you've talked yourself out of it, that's not indecision. That's your calling refusing to let you go.

What is it?

(Hit reply and tell me. I'd love to hear from you.)

📖 The Word Out Loud

Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

He started it. He hasn't stopped. And 15 years in, neither have I.