In my first year of college, I signed up to be a business major. I went to an entire semester of Finance, Marketing and other business classes. You might be surprised to hear I didn’t like it. 

I REALLY wanted to focus on my writing and the arts. So I dropped out of the business school, switched to a BA in English and became heavily involved in the theater scene at my university. I went on to get a Masters in Theatre and then was a professional actor after that.

I didn’t start my business until almost a decade after I’d graduated college. And I started it on a whim, so that I’d have more freedom to go on auditions and still pay my bills. I had NO idea that I was about to stumble upon one of my life’s passions when I started my business.

If you’d have told me back then one day I’d receive the incredible honor of being named a “Featured Founder” for the Notre Dame Entrepreneurial Studies school (named “The Idea Center At The University of Notre Dame”), I would have thought you were joking.

That’s exactly what happened last week.

My friend Mike Brown, a fellow class member at Notre Dame and a legend in his own right, connected me to the ND Idea Center a few weeks ago after following the Capacity Work™ for a while and seeing the incredible changes it made in his own life and job performance just through consuming the free content here via email and on my Instagram account.  Within weeks, I was interviewed for a feature as a Founder.

I shared my life and business journey, from growing up in a dictatorship, how that shaped what I do today, to all the rejection I experienced in my acting career and how it built me up to be a better entrepreneur. I tell the winding journey of how I got to where I am today, and tell some stories I’ve never told before.

You can check it out here.  

I’m sharing this with you today because I want you to know two things:

1. The path to your purpose is never linear.  I had no idea I’d be a business owner ten years after I graduated college. But actually, my English degree and my acting career were PERFECT paths to take prior to starting my business. They’ve informed me as a coach, a CEO and a leader. And I still use the tools from both those experiences in my work today. If you surrender and trust, you’ll see you’re being led towards your purpose every day (if you do the work and lean in, even when things don’t make sense.)

2. The “traditional path” doesn’t really matter. My journey is not your “traditional” get-your-MBA before you become a business owner. I had ZERO business training when I started my business and had no clue what I was doing. But you know what? I learned along the way. Stop telling yourself it has to be done “a certain way” and just take the first step.

This is exactly why I am so passionate about Capacity Work™. Because so many people become obsessed with finding the “right strategy” or “way to do it” and don’t examine the MOST important aspect of becoming successful (whether it’s in your life, business or career)– CAPACITY.

Capacity is what allows you to try things WITHOUT having it all figured out before you’ll dare take a step forward. Capacity is what allows you to keep persisting, even when you have NO idea what’s up ahead. Capacity is what gives you the mettle and the confidence to navigate ALL the challenges that come at every next level of your growth.

A strategy without capacity is like trying to drive a fancy Ferrari down the highway with zero gas in the tank.  You can’t implement or execute a strategy flawlessly WITHOUT capacity. Instead you’ll always second guess it and cut it off at the knees before it has a chance to work, and you’ll always wonder why your strategies never quite seem to deliver the punch they promised.

I’m talking about that and more in the article today. I’m HONORED to be featured as a “Founder” for ND’s Idea Center alongside some pretty huge heavyweight alums who have founded pretty huge companies.

Enjoy the article and let me know what you got out of it over on Instagram, where I”ll be posting about it today too and having a discussion.