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

Taylor Benton

September 28, 2022. Category 4 Hurricane Ian has taken aim at the central west coast of Florida, not far from my home. As a rapidly intensifying storm, Ian’s eyewall had surpassed 150 mph sustained winds and up to 17 feet of storm surge south of the eye. I had chased several Tornadoes and growing up in Florida, was no stranger to Hurricanes. But this day would turn out to be far from anything I could have ever anticipated. Read more>>

Shelby Measel

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my career comes from a difficult experience I had early on when working with a previous employer. I was employed as a mental health therapist at a practice where I was given a significant amount of responsibility, but unfortunately, the owner of the practice was unable to treat his employees with care, respect and priority. Over time, I realized that my employer was not prioritizing the accuracy of these essential tasks, which ultimately led to me being personally affected by their negligence. Read more>>

Kate Pickle

With a 25-year career in business, “The Iron Triangle” is the most important rule I learned. And it can be applied to just about anything. Here’s how it works: I tell clients (and sometimes remind myself) that there is Fast, Good, and Cheap, but you can only have two of the three. Fast + Good = compromise on cost (it will not be cheap). Cheap + Fast = compromise on quality (it will not be good). Good + Cheap = compromise on speed (it cannot be prioritized). Read more>>

Marcia Thomas

One of the most important lessons i have learnt from my 25+ years as an instructional leader is the value of knowing your purpose and aligning it with God’s agenda as a servant leader. This principle has profoundly shaped my approach to running my own consulting and coaching business and guiding other christian career professionals in their career. Read more>>

Moral Turgeman

During my formative years, one of the most essential working experiences in my career was working alongside director and cinematographer Samuel Bayer. I started as an executive assistant but quickly took on multiple roles such as styling, script supervising, working in the camera department, producing print campaigns, and designing and building studio and office spaces while managing his studio operations. The fast-paced environment taught me how to juggle multiple projects, manage large teams and budgets, and problem-solve under pressure. It was an intense crash course in adaptability and leadership, and those years gave me the foundation to execute ambitious creative projects today confidently. Read more>>

Keith Slatoff

I have been in the food and retail industry for over 35 years. I was fortunate to have worked in a variety of restaurants, kitchens, and with great mentors. All that experience has given me the tools to become a private chef and cooking instructor. I have my own chef business named The Wandering Chef 702. In addition I have been in the retail grocery business since 1994. I was a team leader and eventually store manager. Those opportunities exposed me to a lot of people both customers and colleagues. The leadership, customer service, and communication skills I acquired over the years have had a tremendous impact on working with my clients and providing wonderful experiences. Read more>>

Yaheng Li

Today, I work as a visual designer in Greater Los Angeles. Before this, I spent five years in Shanghai focusing on graphic and visual design. However, the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly altered my career direction, and life as well. In particular, the absurd lockdown in Shanghai during the spring of 2022 changed many of my perspectives. That period made me feel suffocated, even stripped of my dignity, and it made me realize there are things I simply cannot change. As a creative professional, I came to understand that freedom and expression are perhaps the most important rights. With that realization, I devoted some time and coins to take this step forward. Read more>>

Sara Defibaugh

Two huge professional lessons I’ve taken from previous jobs are: (1) Treating others as humans rather than employees will get you much further as a leader. (2) This is your career—always prioritize what’s best for you. Despite being relatively young in my career, I have experienced a diverse array of work cultures—both good and bad. I’ve learned that treating others with grace and empathy will get you much further as a leader than treating others as cogs in the machine. My favorite managers and mentors tend to have much more fulfilling careers than those who mistreated me and my peers. Those managers often have trouble finding their next role—and I’ve even seen some switch out of their profession entirely—or have cultivated work cultures that eventually implode, revealing their true, negative nature to a much larger audience than they had contained internally. Don’t be manager number two. Be a human. Read more>>

Lauren Lajas

This might be a little controversial to say, but it’s the reason i took the leap to work for myself and essentially start my own business. I will start off by saying that in the past, i worked for smaller businesses. In doing so, employees tend to wear many hats and fulfill a variety of tasks not necessarily in their job description. Perfectly fine. I have always been a team player! At my last job before i decided to work for myself, i was put in a position that would require me to take on more responsibility. I wanted a raise not only because of this, but because i wanted to utilized my degree in PR and marketing to take not only the location i worked at to the next level, but the other 2 my bosses owned as well. The owners were ecstatic and on board with my proposal and rewarded me with a $.50 raise. $.50. I was beside myself. It was right then and there that i decided to put all my hard work and effort into my goals and aspirations. I know my bosses appreciated me, but you show that appreciation with financial compensation am i right? Enough with the pizza parties! Read more>>

Hannah Schmitt

My journalism degree landed me at a newspaper job right out of college. I fell in love with reporting. Even though the newspaper I worked for had pretty strong ethical guidelines about keeping news and advertising separate, I was still exposed to the pay-to-play structure in parts of regional print media. While I was tasked with seeking out every voice and perspective for stories, there was another side to the newspaper that was elevating voices solely based on the ability of the businesses they represent to support the newspaper financially. Read more>>