Risk is a topic that comes up a lot in our conversations with entrepreneurs and creatives, but a related topic is investments. Investments come in many forms – investing your time, money, heart and soul, etc. So, with that broad definition of investment in mind, we asked rising stars in the community to tell us the stories of the best or worst investments they’ve made.
Dr. Emily Jacobs
The best investment I’ve made as a business owner was hiring a mentor…someone who taught me to “catch up to my calling.” At the time, I was juggling business growth with the demands of motherhood, and while I was driven with ambition….I was also running on empty. I had this deep passion for helping women dream bigger, to believe that their dreams don’t end at motherhood—but I realized I wasn’t fully modeling that in my own life. That’s hard to admit. Read more>>
Kaitlyn Andrew
Early in my career, I worked for a business owner who valued output above all else—volume, speed, revenue.
After many months of long hard days working to my max capacity, I found a new opportunity and finally resigned. The owner said regretfully, ‘I should have spent more time with you and invested in you.’ This was a confirmation that I was on the right track because all the time I had been there, things were so tight that every moment of my time was deeply invested into the company leaving me drained. Why did it take this person so long to understand what was obvious to me from the beginning? From this moment, I made a commitment to myself that I would never allow anyone to place restrictions on my career development. I found companies that cared more about building and developing me both professionally and as a whole person. Read more>>
Lourdes
The best investment I ever made was buying a four-unit building using my VA loan. It took me three years of discipline—paying off debt, saving reserves, and working over 400 days straight without a day off—to get there. The plan was simple: use my VA loan for investments, and my ex-husband’s VA loan for the homes we lived in. Read more>>