As the black Chrysler Town Car hit the Jersey turnpike, Billy Joel came on the radio singing “My Life.” I asked the driver to turn it up. Windows rolled down and looking at Newark International Airport in the distance, I thought this is exactly the way I had always hoped it would be.
Did you tell anyone about where you wanted to go or what you hoped to do with your life when you were young?
We all have a secret world where our hopes and dreams reside. If we’re very, very lucky, we meet someone who we can tell those secrets to who encourages us to move towards those dreams. Sometimes though, they stay hidden away for decades – or sadly, forever.
Eight years ago, in the midst of the recession, a divorce and a move that changed everything, I started to believe in myself again.
In no small part, that is why I am living the life I’m living now.
When the cab driver took me through Chelsea on my way to Columbia University the other day, I told him I had last been to Chelsea eight years ago. I’ve been to New York almost every year since as it is one of my favorite places to be on business but I hadn’t been back to Chelsea. I love Chelsea though – the art, the restaurants, the water – it’s like no place on earth. You can walk into a gallery with $120,000 Andy Warhol paintings and then into another where you can buy something for $20 bucks. It seems like everyone has a small dog on the Street and the restaurants are exceptionally good. If you haven’t been to Chelsea, you should go. It’s fantastic.
My art director and I came to New York City in 2008 to judge awards for the National Retail Federation’s Advertising and Marketing Association in SOHO. We stayed at the infamous, borderline dangerous and infinitely creative, Chelsea Hotel. This is where New York City’s artists, poets, prostitutes and other lost or searching souls stayed for the last 130 years. I decided we should stay here too. I had read about it in the New York Times. I called 3 times to get a rate I could actually swing. Andre was game. I was paying. It’s the kind of place you see in movies. It’s the kind of place where people hide before they are discovered. Andy Warhol, Chick Corea, Edie Sedgwick, Robbie Robertson, Arthur Miller, Leonard Cohen, and Madonna, to name a few. I was hiding, in a way. I’m not sure what Andre was doing but he was certainly along for the ride.
The cabbie remarked that not much had changed in Chelsea since I had last been there. I said, “No, but I have.”
In 2008, I was newly separated from my husband of 18 years. I had just moved my business and myself to Madison. I went from living on 25 acres in the country to living in a two bedroom apartment in a city. I would spend the next 18 months more or less sharing a bedroom with my two kids because they both wanted to sleep in my bed. They were 5 and 8. I felt vulnerable, alone and lost. After growing my company to the top 2% of women-owned businesses in the U.S. I was also basically broke.
Business is a funny thing and so is life. What does Frank Sinatra sing? “I’ve been up and down and over and out…. And I know one thing – Each time I find myself flat on my face I pick myself up and get back in the race. That’s life (that’s life).”
Few people make it to the top without hitting a few detours and roadblocks along the way. How you handle them really determines your fate though. I was talking to fellow Rotarian, client and friend Jackson Fonder recently and he said this is what he tells his kids:
“You’re going to experience setbacks, break-ups, and disappointments. You’re going to wipe out, skin your knees and get bruised along the way. It’s a fact of life. Take 10 minutes. Feel sorry for yourself. Lick your wounds and then dust yourself off and get back in there again. Life doesn’t owe you a thing.” – Jackson Fonder
Isn’t that great advice?
It’s true too.
Your help may come from different places but if you aren’t out there going for it in every sense of the word, it will not come looking for you.
I said “Yes.” to myself, my community and the State of Wisconsin.
Laura participated in Shark Tank style pitches at Columbia University. This group is comprised of two other participants – one from the Milwaukee Cohort – Daniel Guerra from Altus Campus.
This alone would have been tremendous but then I took it a step further. On election night, I was surfing the internet and found out that the State Department is investing in and doing interesting things for women-owned businesses. This lead me to the website for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day which, coincidentally, was happening at the same time as my trip to NYC. So I applied to be a fellow in the program and 9 days later, I found myself at the United Nations with In late August, I was invited to apply to a program called the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. It’s a national program with a great track record. Started by Harvard Professor Michael Porter and funded by large financial institutions, colleges and the cities that welcome them, ICCC Alumni have created over 12,000 jobs in 11 years. Last week, I graduated from the program at Columbia University in New York City. I also heard a number of success stories from others who have graduated from the program who are now leading very successful enterprises. Along with others, I did a Shark Tank style pitch. It was a tremendous experience from start to finish.
I met Her Royal Highness Princess Katherine of Serbia and played NY Philanthropist and Cable Network Founder Loreen Airbus’ baby grand piano in Central Park West. I chatted it up with one of the execs on Governor Cuomo’s staff and was interviewed by CNBC business and entrepreneurship reporter Kate Rogers the next.
I met and heard women who had built incredible businesses from nothing like Sandra Lee and those who had something and gave even more – Loreen Airbus. I met Kay Koplovitz, a University of Wisconsin grad and Founder of USA Network who sold her company for $4.5 billion. She has since created Springboard Enterprises which was launched in 2000 to raise venture capital for women entrepreneurs. When Kay Koplovitz is involved, we’re not talking millions – we’re talking billions. Springboard Enterprises has raised over $5.5 Billion for women entrepreneurs.
There were others too – from China, Korea, Holland and France. I heard their stories and I was changed.
How did I get here?
I decided “why not me?” and I didn’t wait for permission. No one would have given it to me anyway. I started my company when I was 21 years old with a bunch of books from the public library, a desk a friend gave me and a small loan ($2,500) from a bank. I put a MacPlus computer on my American TV credit card. My parents, God love them, wanted me to get a “real job”. And I can’t say I blame them. I was flat broke for the first 9 years. Still, I was so interested in business, in the work I was creating, in the way I could affect change that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Is there something you’re so passionate about that you get lost in it? Is there something you do where time passes and you don’t notice? Is there something you like to do that never ever gets boring? That’s the thing you should do – the thing that makes you come alive.
If you’re waiting for permission to be in business, to live a better life, to lead a company or start a non-profit, you could be waiting for a long time. No one is going to roll out the red carpet for you. And forget about the road map – it doesn’t exist. Not for me or you or anyone. You literally have to build the bridge as you walk on it.
Know that the world needs you. The world needs women and men who have solutions to problems, who care, who are passionate, who have energy and who are moved to act.
Years ago, I saw the movie Spencer’s Mountain. In it, Clayboy, a young man with dreams of going to college is inspired by his Latin teacher who says “The world steps aside to let any man pass if he knows where he is going.” I remember thinking if Clayboy can go from the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming to college, I can too. In fact, if that’s a true statement, I can do just about anything.
In the last year, I’ve dined with royalty. I’ve also served 70 hungry homeless men dinner. I’ve worried because checks haven’t come in that were expected and I’ve been able to provide jobs for 8 creative, kind and hard-working people. I’ve spent time learning from a Princeton professor and a street musician. I am taking it all in. It’s not for everyone but I’m so glad it’s my life – every inch of it.
I decided to start living again a while ago. I’m not sure what I did first except that I stopped being afraid. I hope if you’re in that place, you’ll join me on the other side. This life is so extraordinary when we are fully alive and living out our dreams. Even when we wipe out, skin our knees and get hurt, it’s better than wondering what would have happened if only we had tried.
Write the words, start the business, go to college, join the band, paint the picture, see the city, read books you’ve never read before, ask the questions, change things for yourself and others and live your life out loud, with joy and a childlike curiosity. Do the thing that scares you most and then write me about it, tell others and create a world of possibility where problems can be solved and people and their potential are valued most.
#180in120 – The Choice is Yours – What will you do with the next 120 days?
Laura Gallagher’s company The Creative Company is certified by the State of Wisconsin as Woman-Owned Business Enterprise. Laura Gallagher was recognized by the Governor in June of 2016 as a Trailblazer in Wisconsin at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Her book #180in120 – How to Recharge Your Business in 120 Days is available on Amazon and at 180in120.com.