We love grabbing drinks with our entrepreneur friends because they always have the craziest stories. Sometimes it’s a big, unexpected win. Other times it’s a problem that came out of nowhere and couldn’t possibly have been foreseen. There is so much to learn from these stories and so we asked some of the brightest entrepreneurs and creatives in the community to share some of those stories below.
Ruffin Consulting Services
It all began at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. I was a student majoring in Finance and eager to graduate and work at one of The Big 4 firms. After graduating and throughout my career, I never could land a position at any of the top consulting firms. This did not discourage me as a matter of fact I began to take on a consulting role in my personal and professional life. Read more>>
Michelle Lundqvist and Karen Petersen
When we first started our business, we knew we needed to get into distribution to grow our business. We set our sights on Harold Import Company, a family owned housewares distribution company located in New Jersey. We went through all the regular channels to become a vendor and we were turned down. So we decided to jump on a plane and fly to New York City. We called them and said that we were “in the neighborhood” and could we just pop in to discuss why we had been turned down. Read more>>
Lauren Grogan
Climbing Kilimanjaro. Several years ago, while working on an international travel documentary, I was sent out on an assignment to hike to the top of Africa’s highest mountain. It is the largest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, standing at 19,341 feet or 5,895 meters tall. Read more>>
Noah Hernandez
Starting a business is one thing. It’s full of unexpected twists and turns. Starting a ministry, however, is a whole different story. To start a ministry you obviously need the heart to serve. You need to come to the realization that everything in this life is fleeting and that you can’t take anything from this life when you die. Know that the only toil truly worthwhile is that of God. Read more>>
John Alves
Our CRAZY story goes way back but to this day we still look back and shake our head at how random it was…. Must have been late 2000 early 2001 and we spend $125 on a banner (a lot for us) that just had our website on it-WWW.DIRTBAGCLOTHING.COM yeah we used the WWW back in the day… haha. We had a milling dollar view , 10cent flat in San Francisco right on the corner of Lombard and Broderick… Read more>>