I have just come off of a great run of speaking engagements from the past few weeks. Most recently, this weekend I was the closing Keynote Speaker for the Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference in Saskatchewan, and yesterday, I spoke at the famous 140 / State of Now Conference (Social Media Twitter Conference that travels around the world). My topic: Why it’s Good To Fail.
I encourage you to watch my talk. It is only 10 minutes.
By Guest Blogger Prerna Gupta
When I became an entrepreneur at the age of twenty-three, I began in earnest, as do all entrepreneurs, chasing a dream. My dream was clear. I would build a consumer technology company that reached ten million people and sell the company for millions of dollars, before the age of thirty. Then, as the dream went, I would retire to an oceanfront house on a warm Pacific beach and learn how to surf.
I recently had the fortune of celebrating a year in which I saw that lofty goal fulfilled. My company’s iPhone apps had over ten million downloads, and a competitor paid a large sum of money to acquire what we had built, just a week before my thirtieth birthday. Dream had become reality.
I took a trip soon after to a secluded surf beach on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Sandy-bottom beach break. White sand. House so close to water that the sound of crashing waves made it hard to sleep. This was it. I had made it.
These really spoke to me today, on this rainy Wednesday, at my desk, in my pj’s, coffee in hand. I hope they will speak to you too.
I’d love to know your thoughts.
xoxEDxox
Liz, I’m thrilled to have you, a savvy entrepreneur and mom grace our blog. I don’t think Liz Lange Maternity needs much introduction– most of our mom readers know this well-known, fantastic brand. I loved my Liz Lange Maternity clothes when I was pregnant- comfort, style, affordability. Please tell us the story of how Liz Lange Maternity was born.
I never intended to be a fashion designer or an entrepreneur. I graduated from Brown with a BA in Comparative Literature. And after working at Vogue for a few years, I left to go work for a struggling fashion designer whose work I admired. While there, and in my 20s, my friends started to get pregnant (I myself was not pregnant, but I was newly married and it was that time in my life.) They all had the same complaint– that they couldn’t find anything that they liked to wear while pregnant (This was 1996 – maternity apparel landscape was very, very different!)
I noticed 2 things that led to my aha moment: my friends were spending (they had no choice, nothing in their closets fit!) So I knew that pregnant women were definitely spending on their maternity wardrobes, and they were spending on items they didn’t like. And two, that they looked much better when squeezed into a stretch tight non-maternity outfit than in an oversized traditional maternity outfit. So I thought, “I get it, maternity clothing needs to be fitted and stretchy and women will buy it because they will like it and they will actually look great.”
I don’t even know where to begin. I am still on a high after a magnificent weekend with my mom in Toronto attending Oprah’s Lifeclass Tour. So many of you have tweeted me and Facebooked me asking for all the juicy details. So today will be a mixed bowl of those details, life lessons, and what I learned. Hold on tight, and come along with me on a ride of fun and education…
It all started Sunday. My husband was leaving on a business trip, and I was leaving for Toronto. We kissed our two boys goodbye, and headed to the airport for our respective flights. Walking in, I had to laugh. My mom and I showed up at the airport in the exact same outfit, completely unplanned. Quite typical of us. We were excited, and off on our first mother-daughter trip in almost a decade!
Mom and I at the airport en route to our mother-daughter getaway
By Guest Blogger Jon Gordon
There once was a tree that produced an abundant supply of fruit.
Everyone marveled at its ability to produce a record harvest each year.
The owner who sold his fruit at the local market had become one of the wealthiest men in town and he was the envy of all who knew him.
However, as the years passed the owner spent so much of his time counting and selling his fruit that he forgot to nourish the root.
He became so prideful and focused on results that he neglected to see the signs that the tree was dying.
Then one day when the owner went to pick fruit from his tree he was shocked to discover that the tree was barren.
“How could this be,” he asked?
But when he inspected the root he found his answer.
The root had dried up.
He was so focused on the fruit that he neglected the root.
He wished there was something he could do but it was too late.
It was a lesson he would never forget.
By Guest Blogger Francesca Perrini
I was living the dream: a six-figure income, beach vacations, plenty of time off to cultivate my hobbies, and a growing savings account, all before I was 25.
And then we got divorced, and I woke up to the fact that half of us had no job security, no career trajectory, no savings, and basically no idea. Yes, you guessed it. My half. I had never so much as opened a bank account by myself.
Though my ex was fair to me when we split up the money (in the proportions that we had each earned it, which added up to about a 70-30 split), I quickly ran through what he had transferred into my new checking account as I moved from apartment to apartment and nursed my wounds with treats I couldn’t afford (clothes, nights out with the girls, weekend jaunts to San Juan).
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