We asked some of the brightest folks in the community to open up to us about the most important lesson their business or career has taught them. We’ve highlighted some of those responses below.

Amelia Harvey | Dog Trainer

When you start a business, you assume it’s all about effort and determination. But I’ve found that the biggest thing for me has actually been about trust. You have to trust yourself, and trust your process. When things don’t go right, you have to trust that it’s all part of a greater good and learning. When things do go well, you have to trust that it’s real and can happen again! When you work with animals, you’re telling the animal to trust you and let you lead them. You tell your clients to trust you and let you guide them. All of that stems out of learning how to trust yourself. Read more>>

Andrea Espino | Social Entrepreneur & Ski Instructor

Patience. I believe that be willing to accept the process has been the most remarkable lesson. Things do not happen out of nowhere, it requires effort, organisation and resilience, but mostly patience. Because developing all of these skills, even more if it is the first time you start a business, takes time and a great part of it is trial and error. Don’t be hard on yourself, you are learning, it is the first time you are doing this so there is a great possibility it will not be easy, but with patience the learning process is easier. Always take a moment to think why you do what you do. Read more>>

Mario Acevedo | Writer and artist

That lesson is this–that nothing gets done until you make it happen.
Seems obvious, of course. We writers tend to get in our own way by procrastinating and that is driven by a lot of factors, fear being the most significant. What amazes me though, is that the issue of not starting something is nothing new. Even back in Roman times, people needed a jolt to get out of bed in the morning. The stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations several essays on motivating oneself to go do the hard stuff. Even Leonardo da Vinci, no slouch when it came to creative output, found that he had to write: “It is easier to resist at the beginning that at the end.” Read more>>