We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Fois recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been one of the most interesting investments you’ve made – and did you win or lose? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Honestly, maybe this will sound like a cliche, but my best investment was in myself.

After a messy ending at a haircare company in which I was a senior member of the marketing team, a messy divorce from a man who terrified me, losing my car, and moving out of my apartment abruptly, I had to take a look in the mirror and ask myself how I was living my life. I couldn’t avoid the fact that in all the messy endings, I was the common denominator – I was the one who had made all the choices that led to all of the catastrophes in that time of my life. I had to ask myself – why? Looking around, it was as if I was my own worst enemy. I had never been able to see that until that moment of my life in which everything came to a crashing halt, and in retrospect, I am grateful it all happened.

What ensued was two years of almost exclusive self-work, while I had a party supply e-commerce business that functioned through Amazon. I wrote a lot at that time to better know myself. I hired a somatic therapist, a life coach, and a hypnotherapist, and also tried other therapies while reading a lot.

I found that the more I poured effort, time, but also a great deal of money into myself, the more I improved and grew as a person. It became easier to see what my values are and therefore, what sort of impact I wanted to put into the world. Almost as a byproduct of the amount of effort I put into better understanding myself, I also learned to better monetize my skillsets by better valuing myself and my time, and acknowledging what makes me special. I learned what I like and what I want to focus my efforts on – the parts of my writing career and my businesses that need me specifically – and what to outsource for. Right now, I am a writer who writes on topics such as globalization, capitalism, racism, immigration, and human relationships. My dear friend in Egypt is my manager and she takes on the business portions of my writing work. Meanwhile, only I can do the writing.

Investing in myself impacted me in a seemingly infinite amount of ways. As I learned to process my emotions and regulate my nervous system, I started to make less snap, emotional judgements, and better thought out choices. I tamed my ego – a strong ego in my opinion is very bad for any career as it clouds your vision, and making smart choices is very key to getting ahead in life in general. I have a lot more trust in my abilities and am very confident. I believe in choosing who you want to be in this world, choosing a direction, and taking steps towards it each day. I believe we have to rely on ourselves, and I take accountability for my choices. I have a lot of trust in the world in general, and I assume things will always work out for me, just as part of my personal mindset. The funny thing is, the more I assume everything will always work out, the more I feel like that is what I get.

I actually now am at a point where I am willing to pay almost any amount of money to help me get past some sort of personal block. Health, from mental to physical to emotional, is definitely where I spend most of my money. I never see it as money lost, as I have seen the more I have grown as a person, the more accomplishments, money, and opportunities just flow my way. I can be very frugal when it comes to stuff, but for my health, that is my best spend. No other investment has performed quite as well as the one I made in myself.

Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The short answer is that I am a former UN journalist and have been featured in IRIN News and ILLUME Magazine. I am an Egyptian, American, Muslim, Arab, Mediterranean, and autistic woman, a child of immigrants who is also an immigrant, and I writes from that unique point of view.

In addition, I have been a fashion insider, a published fashion photographer, and was an early member at what is now a widely loved cosmetics brand. More recently, I was a content designer (a type of UX designer) in Big Tech. I have done some branding and packaging work in my spare time, mostly for fun, or for business ideas that haven’t come to light. I live in Mexico City with my husband.

My goal is to connect with people by connecting my experiences in a way that may cause people to think twice about how we understand the world. I want to play a role in eradicating intolerance and fostering community, and help people see the world through a more compassionate lens. I think my unique life experiences make me not just the perfect person to tackle this task.

While I am currently a writer, I am also a business person. I am passionate about people, especially people of color, having and learning to make successful businesses. I worked in many small businesses that were or are now successful, which allowed me to learn how to create and run a successful business. For a period I put on fun community events for Muslims in the Bay Area singlehandedly. I had a party supply business that functioned on Amazon. I am helping my husband with a boutique short term rental business at the moment, that focuses on putting money in the pockets of the local community, while sharing Mexico, the place I love and live, with visitors in a way that fosters learning.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Absolutely. I want to contribute to creating a more compassionate, loving, tolerate, and understanding world. And I want to help give people of color the tools and knowledge to compete in this world.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

My entire existence in the corporate world has been to bootstrap my career and businesses. While like many people at some point I was interested in consuming goods in a way that made me look like I made it, at some point I realized to actually make it, I was going to have a lot more interested in learning and work, and less interested in how I appear. I still believe in keeping a neat, tidy, and respectful appearance, but all of my focus, especially for the last few years, has been in growing my knowledge and wealth to allow me the space, time, and finances, to create something in the world for myself, instead of for my employers.

Once you see money as something that allows you to build instead of something that is meant to be spent, your entire mindset can change, and so can your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sarahfois.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/sarahfois_
• Twitter: http://instagram.com/sarahfois_

Image Credits

George Uris (personal photos)