Sometimes the path you thought was smooth sailing goes awry—a bit or a lot. Sometimes it falls completely apart. It's in those moments that you need to know your why. Why are you venturing out on your own? Trying to start a new business? Working to leave what is certain behind and move into the great unknown? And then you have to simply put one foot in front of the other and trust that the uncertainty won't last for very long and that you can weather it.
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Reflecting on my past and sharing some important advice
Yesterday, I had the absolute privilege of giving the commencement address at the December graduation ceremony of my first Alma Mater, Minnesota State University Moorhead. When President Anne Blackhurst called me in November to ask if I would be willing to speak, I jumped at the opportunity. This has secretly been on my bucket list for quite awhile now, so I was thrilled to be invited. With 500 graduates and a packed house of around 2,000 people, I was anxious, but I also felt pretty good about my talk since it was inspired by and adapted from the LadyBoss talk I gave earlier this year. I was so proud to…
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Interesting investments
I spent this past week at the SOCAP conference. Aside from being in beautiful San Francisco, the conference brought about some unexpected results. Or to speak in the parlance of the conference, it paid some excellent dividends (oh yes, I’m very versed in VC speak now. Ha!) I attended the conference because the Bush Foundation paid for a number of us who were selected by a committee from SOCAP to attend. It’s certainly the kind of thing that I would never have invested in for myself. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the size and scope of the conference–nearly 3,000 attendees from all over the world with many people working on…
