BebeGene

As someone who is struggling with a foundry of odd jobs to pursue my creative path, thank you for sharing.

Shot in the dark here, but if you're in LA, do you take interns or shadows? If so, how do I sign up?

Need more AMAs like this!

This! So very true. I flunked out of university my third year, which took me 8 years to get to to begin with. I fucking hated how dysfunctional and out of touch my school was, but it meant so much to my parents to graduate. During that year before readmittance, feeling like a bag of shit loser, I went to a bunch of meetups as a last plea to myself to change my bleak outlook on life at that time, found people who mentor at incubators, dove into the world of entrepreneurship and hit a fucking wall....

I didn't have the skill set or discipline to be on this path...but knowing how I am, how creative and hustle-y I am, I just couldn't work for someone else...not in the traditional sense anyway. I needed something different. I've always creatively hustled and I didn't want to cower, I wanted to sustain and scale!

So the daydreams of being a successful person by any means, through conventional schooling or entrepreneurship were blowing away faster than the coal smoke from an antique train. I spent that year being a dick to myself and breaking my personality down...and asking for feedback from anyone who basically seemed to have their head on a little tighter than mine, and experimented with a few startups of my own to understand how I problem-solve. Figuring things out was so much harder for me than everyone else it seemed. That's why school was so hard. I felt like a dummy, seriously.

Entrepreneurship is amazing because it really teaches you who the fuck you are. The good and the bad. And if you want it, you need to unlearn a LOT of what college taught you and figure out how things really work.

When I re enrolled, I fought the district to take a crossover class in the entrepreneurship major as a Communications major. I got in after months of harassing everyone involved. I got to go into the field and interview their potential customers to gauge if their concept would be a good fit based on a survey we developed as a team, create a customer profile andwork with a team to validate a startups concept based on the lean method.

I ended up losing my ability to qualify for financial aid because my GPA was so low, but I wouldn't accept that. Icametoo far for them to slam me with that bad news. I wrote a 4 page single-spaced petition asking them to reconsider, and they ended up not only reimbursing me for that semester, but the semester prior when the deadline was weeks ago. I couldn't believe it--it was the best news. My poor mother ended up paying my tuition so I was thrilled to be able to reimburse her. It broke my heart to see how bad my mistakes affected everyone around me.

But it was ok. I graduated, tutored a ton of people and I help everyone I can in any way if they need it because everyone I asked to help me during the worst times, helped me.

If you fuck up a lot in conventional structures, use it as fire under your ass to get your shit straight and push yourself into the direction of your idea. Always improve yourself. Find your tribe. Find mentors who are doing what you want. If you don't know what you want, try everything that peaks your interest. Read books. Don't simmer in front of a TV and let your ambitions pass you by.

Im in my late 20s and because of my mentors, because of my lifelong obsession with writing, and constantly forcing myself to network and learn, and crying in the shower alone collapsing to my knees from the pressure to be something more (literally a hot mess with waterproof gel eyeliner EVERYWHERE...fucking everywhere Barbara), being more scared of being a failure by default for not even trying versus a failure for trying albeit on the right path, I am finally on my way.

Also, keep fucking up. It's fun. Experiment. Use results to make ideas better. It gives you an edge. Its the best thing you can do for yourself. Just don't stop!!!

There will be hell to pay later.

Amazing. That's a really unique outlook on the working scale. I've worked in productions (barely....as makeup and hair) and PAs for example bust their bums and are not compensated really for anything. So that's pretty neat!

Well if you ever do decide on hiring someone, I am pretty darn organized and non judging :D. I myself lose my mind from time to time when I am enveloped in a Project and by the end of the week I am sleeping on a pile of clothes. Something's gotta give when you're int he zone man.

But... I chase my current PT boss around with memos and program his phone to help him figure out his prioritized daily goals anyway... So He can kick back in his pajamas all he wants, as long as he does what he needs to do everyone is happy heh.