The True Value of Opportunities

Recently, I launched my own business. Since doing so, I’ve gotten the same question over and over again, “How did I do it?”

What I quickly realized during my discussions with the people asking was that the question they really were asking me was ‘how did I find myself in a position to do it?’

That is a totally different kind of question, and gets to the core of why I did it.

So let me start with my why, and then I can explain how I did it.

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a series of fireside chats with incredible women that are leaders, luminaries and disruptors across a variety of industries. During my prep sessions with a female angel investor, she made a statement that ignited something within me. She said, “Genius is distributed equally across zip codes, but opportunities are not.”

She went on to say, “How can a child ever imagine becoming a marine biologist if they’ve never visited the beach, tasted the salty air, felt the sand between their toes, and ventured into the ocean? What may surprise you more is that there are kids in East Los Angeles, 25 miles from the beach, that have never been to the beach.”

You need to see it to be it.

It was at that moment that I began to see how I could make a positive impact and turn it into my career.

So I spent a few months talking to friends, family, colleagues and different people in my network. And a few months later I resigned from my full-time job, and co-founded a venture studio that focuses on social and environmental impact, starting with supporting under-represented entrepreneurs and ideas that will serve under-represented communities. Because opportunities should be distributed equally across zip codes.

Now back to the original question, how did I find myself in a position to do it?

After graduating college during “The Great Recession”, I said “yes” to every paid project offer I received. Agreed to every informal informational interview that friends and family could get me. Took every job interview that came my way. And by October of 2008, I was offered a job at one of the top PR agencies in the U.S.

After I was fired from my first job--yes the one at the top PR agency--I questioned if I had picked the right profession. Regardless, I said “yes” to attending a free PR networking event with a friend, and that same night I met the person that would hire me for my next job.

That next job (still in PR) was the opportunity I needed to really cultivate my talents and begin to shape who I would become today. I had an opportunity to work with businesses that aligned with my passions, and I not only helped that agency grow from revenues that amounted to a few hundred thousands dollars a year when I started to more than $5 million a year by the time I left.

In a little more than 3 years, I went from being an individual contributor at the agency to overseeing and managing an entire division. And ultimately, it was the job that introduced me to my business partner today, Frank Addante.

After pitching and winning his account, I had an opportunity to work closely with him to prepare his company for its IPO. Soon after, he offered me a job at his company, but it required me to move from NYC to LA. Yet again, I said “yes”, and in September 2014 I officially moved from the East Coast to the West Coast to start a new chapter in my career.

It’s been 7 years since I made that decision, and a lot has happened since then. But the moral of my story, and the answer to “how did I do it” is that I said “yes” to every opportunity I was offered, and did everything in my power to make the most of those opportunities. And when opportunities did not exist, I did everything I could to create opportunities for myself.

I have been incredibly privileged in that: (1) I grew up in a place where I had access to so many different resources and opportunities (often free of charge), (2) I came from a family that encouraged me to take advantage of any and all opportunities that came my way, and (3) all of that has continued to manifest itself into new opportunities.

So if you want to know if you can do it too--whatever “it” is for you--the answer is yes. Take the chance, and recognize that even the setbacks create opportunities.

In the wise words of Kobi Yamada, “So, what do you do with a chance? You take it… because it just might be the start of something incredible.”