A man I respected said that about me in my 20s, and after getting over my betrayed feelings and the self-doubt it gave rise to periodically, it became my favorite motivator. There’s nothing like some healthy anger from being misjudged to stoke an already burning fire of entrepreneurial passion.

I had my first business when I was 12. It was called “Sherry Bits”, and it involved making dollhouse miniature fruits and vegetables and putting them on consignment in a store in Maryland. Even earlier entrepreneurial pursuits included running my own table at craft fairs and selling handcrafted felt magnets and vending questionably smelling sachets and bath salts roadside. Then there was me at my most resourceful? I put price tags on pencils and other random objects in my room and would lure in my sister in an attempt to transform our relationship into one of vendor/customer.

Why am I sharing this?

I am obviously a creative, but my passion for business has been present in equal measure since the beginning. 

And I think there’s a detrimental typecasting that is all too prevalent in the workplace today, one that pigeonholes people by assigning them limited lanes of travel given the confines of their titles. We all know that producers can be gifted writers, actors can be gifted directors, just as tech engineers can be gifted business strategists.

Humans aren’t one-track. We are dynamic and multi-dimensional.

The Co-Founder & CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, gave an inspiring talk about how designers are so often the ones in a business that connect necessary dots outside of traditional modes of thinking. Great decisions can be made by those guided by intuition rather than fear or status quo. Designers can lead empires, and Brian is a great example of that.  

In short, damn straight I can succeed in business, and I’m doing it wearing this outfit.

I am an unapologetic creative, now stewarding as CEO the growth of the tech company I Co-Founded. We have invented something groundbreaking, and if I hadn’t been willing to trust my inner vision for our invention and keep that vision alive over the many years that we’ve struggled and bootstrapped our way to millions in funding to get our team paid, where would we be?

There’s a graveyard for start-ups, and that’s not where we’re headed. Maybe it’s precisely because I have a creative spirit that won’t die out, that we’re not. 

Well, that and having a great business partner! ☺ Nothing is ever really achieved alone, and I’m reminded of this daily.

My message to the world is this: Let people shine.

Life isn’t black and white. People deserve to be respected with that awareness. Cheerleading the passions in others is the key to success, no matter the business. 

And for every hundred “you should be less of an artist to succeed” execs out there, there’s one who thinks it’s precisely because of one’s creative talents that one can. 

Let me be that person for you, if you need someone.

Our freedom can only come when we’re true to ourselves. I say, go forth and claim it!!