We asked some brilliant entrepreneurs, artists and creatives to reflect on lessons they’ve learned at prior jobs. We’ve shared highlights below.

Estarlyn Hiraldo

I spent most of 2021 freelancing as a contractual videographer/marketing specialist for local non-profit organizations and start up companies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, I had graduated college and I was networking profusely with local creative individuals and organizations in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area in search of leads for consistent clients/work. I didn’t secure temporary contractual jobs until late that year. Read more>>

Jharvis James

The most important lesson I learned at a job that helped me as a business owner came from the greatest work experience I’ve ever had. Read more>>

Darrin Hackney

Before becoming a photographer, I was in the bar/hospitality industry for over 30 years. Watching people from behind the bar was fun for me. I could see the laughs, the hugs, the high fives, and the fights on a nightly basis. I became proficient at paying attention to people’s eyes. No matter what you told me, I knew your eyes didn’t lie. Watching eyes and watching body language for over 30 years has helped me in my photography and photography business. Read more>>

Erica Hornthal

Years of working with individuals living with dementia taught me that just because someone cannot speak doesn’t mean they do not have anything to say. That lesson has informed the work I do and the book I wrote. Read more>>

Cassie Arndt.

I’ve always worked in customer service from my first job at 14 years old and feel as if every job prior to business ownership has prepared me for entrepreneurship. I’ve learned how you make people feel will always trump anything else. In the spray tan business it can be vulnerable for a person to be standing in front of you fully nude or partially nude so I try my absolute hardest to build rapport with my clients before starting their tans. Read more>>

Brittney Ezell

Rejection is a redirection and often a protection. Career change after 23 years as a college basketball coach. Learning to see things thru a lens of abundance and opportunity rather than a lens of scarcity. Read more>>

Julie Eisenhower.

Being eager and motivated to start practicing law, I graduated law school with the intention of becoming a real estate attorney and never stepping foot in the courtroom. I thought I would never practice a day of family law but only draft contracts, negotiate real property deals, and interact with business owners and homeowners– never emotions, loss, or human struggle. But fate had a different plan for me. Read more>>

Sean Bryant

I spent ten years working in a small, impoverished community that was controlled by crime and hardship, daily struggles and loss of hope when I first arrived at their little elementary school. This is where I learned the importance of unity and that “community creates change”. During those ten years, the community dramatically changed and became a beacon of hope, Read more>>

Shauna Maria Blake

The most important lesson that I has helped me as a artist is to never let anyone put you down when it comes to your craft and never let anyone make you feel like you are in competition with somebody else. Read more>>

Catalina Vasquez

I was working in a small business with a group of friends, and I didn’t put boundaries with the number of requests I was accepting; plus, I was involved in like five other projects, thinking I could do everything simultaneously. I was stressed and alarmed at one point, so I prioritized my mental health. Read more>>

Leslie Lew

I learned that there is a higher price to pay by not speaking up than there is by speaking up. I once worked for a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of San Francisco. I started from the bottom as a telephone operator and then a reservations agent. A year later, I felt a sense of pride in landing the job as a Sales Coordinator/Assistant to the Director of Marketing. She was an Asian American woman that sold me on the idea that she would be my mentor, but she treated me like a dog at her beck and call . Read more>>

Lisa Foster

I have been working with patients for over 25 years, and I’m proud to say that I am continuously refining my treatment approaches and learning important life lessons every day. I am a firm believer in a team approach, where the client is as much of the healing process as I am as their therapist. Read more>>

Mollie Montgomery

Feeling woefully inadequate, I was sitting in supervision during my graduate school internship where I was counseling survivors of domestic violence, I’m fumbling over my words and grappling with the sentiment-how can I possibly be helpful to people who are going through such intense and horrifying experiences, experiences I have not personally had? My supervisor, one of the wisest and most loving people I’ve known, looked at me reassuringly and said “you’re not more than one situation away from being in the client chair.” Read more>>

ShugE Mississippi (AKA Christopher Allison)

I’ve been in the food rescue world in the Twin Cities for a very long time now & worked & helped build numerous nonprofits dedicated to food rescue related work. In my experience the longetivity of this work depends on making it sustainable for the people doing the work. Some people look at a nonprofit charitable project like Community Driven & see somewhat of a hobby project or something that can be supported in their spare time on occasional weekends. Read more>>