Helping more people thrive doing what they love or are passionate about means helping more folks learn from those who came before them and so we asked successful entrepreneurs, artists and creatives to tell us what they would do differently, knowing what they know now, if they were starting over.

Dylan Harkavy

Oh man—if I could go back, there are so many things I’d do differently.

Wesley (my younger brother) and I started Harkavy Furniture in 2015. We were both fresh into our twenties with zero experience running a business. Our only goal at the time was simple: build the furniture we loved and sell it.

What we didn’t realize was that reaching that goal would require dealing with a thousand other tasks and problems we hadn’t even considered. Thankfully, we were surrounded by some pretty incredible humans who helped us navigate the chaos without crashing and burning right out of the gate. Read more>>

Takisha Jackson

Crazy thing is, I’m actually starting over as I type this. I recently got terminated from a corporate job I dedicated the last five years to—only to be told three days before my birthday that my position was being eliminated. A position, by the way, that I held longer than anyone else in the company. But enough about them—their biggest mistake was my biggest wake-up call. Read more>>

Stephanie Batten

This is a question I thin about all the time, so it’s humorous that I would find it in the list of possible questions for this article! Everyone starts somewhere, and once everyone starts their business, whatever that may be, we often feel locked into doing exactly what we market ourselves as. Read more>>

Sinéad Hawkins

Breaking into media is incredible difficult. Especially as a young new college graduate. From High school, I knew I wanted to be a journalist so my vision was clear but the orchestration definitely wasn’t. I spent a lot of time on unpaid Internships after graduating trying to find a way into the industry. The key to success for me was writing freelance articles for different publications. I wish, I had built stronger relationships with people who understood the industry more – that way I could have spent less time trying to break into the field. Read more>>