I met Courtney last fall and have
been extremely fascinated and inspired by the company she has built in Atlanta,
and the family that she is so successful with. I have never talked to her about
her business story before, but decided she would be a perfect person to call up
and interview for this semester.
Courtney went to the University of
Georgia and studies many different fields including psychology and English,
before ending up with a BA in History with a Women’s Studies minor. When I
asked her when she realized she wanted to be an entrepreneur, she told me that
she always knew she “wanted to do her own thing.” When she was younger, she
would play business to entertain herself.
Once she was in HS and in college, she didn’t really know what she wanted
to do. All she knew was that she wanted
to create new things and make a business out of it. She didn’t think of herself
as an entrepreneur at first. It took a heck of a lot of work, and a successful
business strategy that has been successful after seven years for her to
consider herself an entrepreneur. She said, “ I just simply started a business
and I was determined to make it work. I
come from a line of hard-working entrepreneurs, so I guess it’s in my blood.”
When I asked her about her unexpected challenges, her reply was “Oh boy! MANY!” She told me that facing these
challenges and not giving up is the key to being a successful
entrepreneur. She said that you cannot
be afraid of making mistakes because that is how you learn. She said she started out extremely
conservative and uneasy about making risks, but that now she is willing to put herself
and the business out there because she now realizes this is what helps it grow.
Earlier on in my business’s infancy, I was much more conservative and
calculated with risk. Now, I am willing
to put her and the business out there because that is what helps her and the
company grow. She said that as far as using her education to help her run her
business, she has not used the information that she learned, but the skills
that she learned and that this has made all the difference.
Her advice for school and through out
the business life is to just keep on trucking!
Get the degree. Perhaps have a
little more fun – college is not just about grades. Take classes that interest you. Listen to your own gut and not others –
including your parents! They mean well
but only you know what is in your heart.
If you want to be a starving artist – do it!! There are many ways to make a living. And you don’t have to be rich. You just need to be happy. And happiness comes from the inside and being
fulfilled. I absolutely loved talking to
her and getting advice from a successful businesswoman for the first time this
semester.
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