Yahoo!! I am thrilled to be included in Entrepreneur – for the second time. The article is “4 Tips for Launching Your Fashion Company” and it’s on the Entrepreneur website (you an find it here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/
Over the years I’ve had a lot of good press, places like CNN, FOX, NPR, Chicago Tribune, WWD (even a cover which was really cool), Lucky Mag, etc…
All of this press was terrific – it really was. But something about being in a magazine that’s all about entrepreneurship is honestly a real thrill and an honor. It was actually a dream of mine (I was also in the April 2013 issue of Entrepreneur).
But here’s the thing…
I’m writing today not just to brag (yeah, that’s part of it) but to tell you how I was able to make it happen so maybe you can be the one to have a big win soon.
Now usually I avoid any talk of “make your dream a reality” because I find it a bit corny – or ubiquitous – or whatever. But in this case it makes sense and it’s true.
How I got what I wanted…
First, it helped that my story is interesting at least to a certain niche who find it worth writing about. You gotta have that. For YEARS I have wanted to be in Entrepreneur (also the New York Times, just sayin’). But it was such a HUGE pie-in-the-sky feeling of a dream that I didn’t tell anyone. I mean, who am I to be in a magazine like that? What’s so great about what I do? People would laugh at me if they knew I aspired to that, right?
So I kept this wish to myself. And then my brother-in-law died of a massive heart attack at the age of 45. It was devastating to all of us.
And it changed the way I am – to my core.
My attitude changed. I started saying Eff it, it could be me next time so what do I have to lose. And I meant it.
So that very day I started telling everyone I knew that I wanted to be in Entrepreneur Magazine. Without shame, without (too much) fear. And wouldn’t you know, I have a great network. And one of my neighbors said to me, “really, that’s interesting because I know a writer there and maybe I could pitch it to her”.
I was shocked.
And excited. So she put us in touch – and it took a while to connect. I kept following up. Then I pitched my story to the writer and she liked it. She pitched it to her editors and they bought it. Et viola, the rest is history.
What this means for you.
Anyway, I guess my point is that if you take the fear away and start to really actively go after what you want, things happen. If I had kept my dream to myself I would have gotten nothing. The courage to put it out there was the key.
I hope this helps – even one of you! What do you think? Let me know by leaving the comment below. And if you prefer posts about “How to” and “3 Steps for”, you can tell me that too.
And thanks for reading,
Jane
P.S. You can check out the article here:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/
Thumbnail photo credit: Brujo+ / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
2 Responses
This is a truly inspiring story! My dream is to show a line at New York Fashion Week as one of South Africa’s upcoming designers! Yay, I put it out there! It feels liberating! A dream I am totally working towards! It will be a complete achievement for me, my ultimate dream come true, especially since I have no formal training in fashion design, but have been making clothes for my Barbie and Ken dolls since I was 4 years old and have been sketching designs from the age of 10 until now at 30 years old! With the help of your Start Up course, I am finally putting my best foot forward and putting all my energy to launching my first clothing line in 2015 called TopMeUp. A line of blouses/tops for young professional women who need their clothes to work for them from day to night. I am extremely excited and motivated! Thank you for all your posts especially this one as I feel I really relate to it! Here’s to my dream of showing my line, Zeenat Arieff at New York fashion week in the future!
Good for you, Zeenat! Here’s to NY Fashion week! Wishing you all the success in the world.
-Jane