One of the most important lessons we learned is that our lives and our businesses will teach us along the way. We don’t need to know everything on day one because the challenges we face on day will likely be ones we are already equipped to handle. As we overcome challenges we get better and better and as the challenges increase in difficulty so too does our ability to tackle them.

We asked members of the community that we admire to share important lessons their business or career has taught them and have shared some of those responses below.

Jared Lark | Photographer & Videographer

I think one of the most important lessons, if not THE most important lesson, is it’s not about you. It’s about others. I think getting into photography, I had a natural eye for it and thought I was pretty good for my skill level, granted at that time I only took photos of landscapes, cars and other inanimate objects, however, it wasn’t until I started taking photos of others, and dealing with other people, that I realized, it’s not about me. Read more>>

Mike Dries | Chef and Catering Owner

The Most important lesson I have learned from my business and career is you need to be able to roll with the punches. This is a hard industry and will push you. We weave through organized chaos and if you are not able to adjust and change it will break you. Covid is a great example of that. My catering company business disappeared over night. if I just kept trying to do what we always did we would fail. Also on a personal level if I wasn’t willing be ok with making changes I would be miserable. Read more>>

Dalton Huey | Videographer & Co-founder of Deep Wells Media, LLC

One large over-arching theme that I’ve seen since we started our business is patience. In a world where you always see and read about people launching and growing successful businesses overnight, it can be easy to compare yourself to others. It can feel like you’re a failure when your business doesn’t just take off. When you launch your website and only 5 people visit it—people that you know are your parents and friends. So you have to be patient and put in the work to get people there. Read more>>

SixFootah The Poet | Spoken Word Artist and Motivational Speaker

That I must always show up if I really want to succeed in life. And what I mean by show up I must always show up for myself in order to show up for others. The only way to do that is to be disciplined enough to take time out for myself. In order to always show up 100 percent. Read more>>