My name is Reiquan Garrison, a senior at Peoria High School, dreaming of becoming an architect.

What is the name and title of your interviewee?

My interview took place in Glendale, Arizona with Jonathan Schmid with Network Alignment, an architecture firm.

How did they describe their job?

Jonathan works as a project manager at Network Alignment. His job focuses primarily on negotiation and scheduling meetings with contractors. This job is mandatory in order to successfully continue on with the business of structure and design. I asked John how he would describe his job and he said simply to build a better future for future businesses.

What was the most challenging part of their job?

When asked what his most challenging part of his job was, he responded in a strange way. Even though it was negative, he proceed to say that he enjoys the challenges. He said that there is a lot of ups and downs in his business and it takes time and patience before building a structure. Before the building begins, you have to go through the hassle of waiting for permits, hiring contractors, and signing documents.

What did they enjoy most about their job?

My favorite question was what did he enjoy about his job and he replied that it was the fact of building structures using maximum creativity to design the structure, like building schools and fire stations.

Where was you interviewee at your age and where did they think they were going to go in their career?

Jonathan got into an architect firm as a high school senior. He went to Arizona State University. He said it was very competitive and if you want to get into a firm it consists of a lot of networking and knowledge. As of now, he is still working on taking and passing his test in order to become a registered architect.

What is the one piece of advice your interviewee would tell themselves at your age?

The advice that Jonathan Schmid gave me as we were coming to an end was to find an architect firm and get knowledge and skills early so you can develop faster and there is no confusion. Being an architect is not an easy job and it takes a lot of time and studying but if you want to be successful in this career field you must make sacrifices and handle situations in a professional matter. I enjoyed my interview and it really opened my eyes to the field of architecture. I’m glad that I had this opportunity to begin networking and possibly land me an internship in a firm where I can gain the knowledge that Jonathan did.

Bernhard’s house is made of mud, and he is very proud of that fact. As a natural builder, in Portland, Oregon, Bernhard is working to inspire more people to realize the possibilities of the natural world around them, or in this case, under their feet. Bernhard says the empowerment he felt, from building his own home, is what has led him to educate others in the ways of natural building. He has learned entirely from experience, and books read on the subject. Bernhard does not tout natural building as a way to make a fortune, but as he says, “That’s not the way I want to be.”

Speaking from a public bench, the construction of which he oversaw, Bernhard speaks of the wonderful relationships that can be formed while working with a natural medium. Mud, he says, is a very natural thing. There is very little training that makes one person more of a mud expert than another person. This particular Oregon bench was built as a school project, and Bernhard says it was rewarding to see the kids come together, across social strata, and build a space for the community. And that is truly Bernhard’s passion: community building. The construction creates places that inspire public congregation, bringing people together around places they can proud of.

Besides being a single mother raising four kids, Tracy Boyce’s full time job is a feng shui practitioner.

Originally an accountant, Tracy never knew something like feng shui existed. The seeds for her profession were planted after receiving a home consultation twelve years ago, and were sowed once a divorce became eminent.

With a settlement that barely covered the mortgage, Tracy decided that her part time feng shui practice did not have enough of a steady income to support a family. Falling back on a part time bookkeeping position to pay bills, she found that her time was being consumed by calculations, and not by color coordination.

Overwhelmed and overworked, Tracy walked into her boss’s office one day and requested that she be compensated fairly for the extra workload she was assuming. The next day she was a full time feng shui consultant, fired from her bookkeeping job.

“I guess my ex-boss did me a great favor by firing me. I’m not sure if I would have taken that step on my own. It was a pretty scary thing to do, financially. No one was offering their support to me or even help. From the vantage point of now, he was my biggest supporter.”Going from accounting to design isn’t necessarily the recommended career course for designers, but as the feng shui practice preaches, it was Tracy’s “path.”

Check out Tracy Boyce at http://www.tracyboycefengshui.com/

Bill Gallagher likes to build things, and build things he has. His company, Oakmont Senior Living, is one of the largest developers in all of Sonoma County in northern California. The father of five is casual in tone, humble in contrast to what might be expected from a man so successful. At this point in his career, Bill is focused on the development of senior housing, and finds satisfaction in providing for the older members of the community. Bill likes to build things, but more he likes the entire process of development. Perhaps this explains his adopting three children after his own children were grown.

At 19, Bill Gallagher hitchhiked most of the way across Canada; he had no money and wanted to take a trip. Along the road, he was taken in by some travelers who had adopted children after their own had grown. Years later, Bill followed suit, and has relished in the opportunity to love and nurture his children.

Although still stressful at times, success has brought to Bill precious time to spend with his wife and five children. Bill is not a gambler, but rather uses his family minded mentality to calculate risk. But that calculation he does not suggest to someone without obligation.

“Whatever you want to do, really go after it. Really go for it. Don’t go for security before it’s necessary. Do your own thing and create something.”

Simple words from a simple man who has simply made it big.

Here’s the transcript of the interview…

Bill wears a Hawaiian t-shirt, dark sunglasses, a hat, khaki shorts, and sandals. Two dogs return tennis balls, dropping it as Bill’s feet as he whirls out another toss in the game of ‘go fetch.’ It’s another standard day at the office. A big piece of undeveloped land sits adjacent to the office building his company operates from.

My uncle was telling me you were a framer for a bit? Is that how you got your start?

No. Not really. At 22 I was just married. I was working at Safeway grocery store. I worked there about four years. I figured out that’s exactly what I didn’t want to do.

But I had worked a little bit with the family, building a couple homes when I was in high school and college. When I was 25, I decided that I wanted to try and build houses. And I never really worked for anyone else. Just got into family money, and begged people for money to do a spec house.

I did one house. After that sold, I did two homes. Four homes. Ten homes. That’s how that worked. Started with homes.

I liked being my own boss. That was really important to me. It was very risky, because if the house didn’t sell. That first house is really important. And the industry has ups and downs if you’re a builder. It’s good at times and bad at times. So you’re always worried about…when things are good, you wonder how long they’ll be good.

Was this in Santa Rosa when you started?

Actually, my wife was going to graduate school at UC Davis. I did my first home there. I did about three or four, and then she was done with school so I came back to Santa Rosa and started.

So really, other than a few homes there, I started in Santa Rosa. That was in ’79.

So what made you want to go into building homes?

Well, it was combination of things. It was the possibility of making money. That wasn’t the sole thing, I wanted to do something I liked. I enjoyed building something that you could see when you’re done, versus working at a grocery store. You put things on a shelf and they’re gone at the end of the day. You do that for fifty years, where all you do is put things on a shelf and you can’t stand back and look at your work and see you’ve created something.

As a developer builder, you get to create. You get to find land and draw the plans and get the financing and get the packages together. If you do it well, then you’re rewarded. Well. If you don’t, you suffer.

All that being in a position where you’re being your own boss. Your destiny is in your own hands is essentially what’s important to me. I didn’t want to work for someone else. I couldn’t possibly do that.

So you mentioned that the housing market goes up and down. Sometimes that accompanies failure. Have you experienced failure in your career and how did you overcome some of the failures?

Well, I don’t know about failing. I don’t think I really failed. There are times where projects didn’t go as well as you think they were going to go. And there are developers who fail in the fact they go bankrupt.

But there are always points of stress. Tremendous stress. Where the market stays bad for longer than you hope and you bought pieces of property that are more difficult to develop. They take longer, things drag out. There are times where I’ve been under a lot of stress.

So a lot of that is risk.

Sure it’s risk. Absolutely risk.

So how do you go in what that confidence that you have a piece of land that is just out there and you’re confident that what you’re going to do is be successful?

Well, you get more confidence as you go. Every time you have a success on one, you do two, and that’s a success it builds. It doesn’t happen the first time. You don’t know all the answers when you start on any project. You can’t figure it all out. You have to take an educated guess. ‘I’ve got most of the stuff. I think it’s a good project.’

People have told me that I must like to gamble because I’m in this business. I don’t like to gamble at all. I’m not a guy that goes to Las Vegas or does anything gambling. It’s not gambling at all. It’s a calculated risk in development.

The confidence, you get that over time. When you have success you get it.

What about developing, specifically, makes you passionate about your work?

Well, what I like is to see and find property that’s vacant and then building something out of it. That’s what I enjoy the most. But then seeing people use it. For our company, it’s senior housing, so you take a vacant piece of property, you build something, and you see some older folks who come in and appreciate it. And you’re creating a home for them.

A home that feeds them, takes care of them. That’s pretty rewarding to see that happen. To be able to do that whole thing, to be able to do the architecture and the interior design and furnishing and to hire all the people to do it, the whole package is really fun.

Is that your only passion? Development? Or do you have multiple passions? Philanthropy and things like that.

My wife does that (Laughs). I’m partial owner of a bank in Santa Rosa. So I like banking too. But I like business.

I love to go to work. I don’t work that much compared to a lot of people. I get to work at maybe eight o’clock or seven thirty. I get home at five thirty. Every night. I don’t work weekends. I’m either at work or doing stuff with my family. Almost all the time. I have five kids.

I like having kids, I love being with the kids and my wife.

So if you could go back and tell yourself just one piece of advice at 22 years old, what would that one thing be?

Well, I would think whatever you want to do, whatever somebody wants to do, really go after it. Most people want security. And I would say, especially when you’re young, take a risk. What do you have to lose?

I mean, really go for it. I see kids your age that are 22 or 23 and they’re going to go in a profession that’s a standard thing. My advice is to try something else first. For me it would be so much more fun to do your own thing and create something versus going to law school and going to work for a firm. It just seems like the bottom. It just seems like a death to me.

Noah: I took the LSAT before I left on this trip.

Did you?

Brett: And I was an auditor.

It’s not a bad thing to do. But why? I’ve got an older daughter who is 26. She’s going to graduate school to get her PhD. I’m trying to talk her out of it. Friends are like, ‘Why would you talk your daughter out of getting a PhD. She’s going to UC San Francisco.’ Because, you know, the more you get into this pigeonhole of what you can do with that.

So most people like that I guess. There’s security in that. But I wouldn’t go for security when I was 22. There’s plenty of time to get that. Go for what you like.

Noah: That’s an excellent…

You too. If you like something, go for that! You can always do the law stuff later.

Noah: You know, I’m on this trip. I took the LSAT to appease my mother.

That’s another thing. Some of the family friends we have, their kids are doing what their parents are pressuring them to do. Whether it’s going to graduate school. It’s their parents problem because they’ll feel better if their kid has a law degree. I can tell my neighbors, my friends that my daughter or my son is doing that.

The kids don’t really want to do it. They’re not doing it with a passion. They’d really like to go do this other thing. They’ve told me that! I say, ‘Why aren’t you doing it then? Go do the other thing!’

You could go to law school in five years if you want. You can do that. Or get your law degree, pass your tests, and go do something else. Come back to it.

But life is for an adventure. What kind of adventure do you want to have?

Why do you think young people do that then. Why do they not take a risk at this age? When they get out of school. Is it financial stuff? Please their parents? Or is it all that stuff?

Yeah, there’s a fear factor. And there’s always issues with money. I mean, you’re risking what you have. But when you’re 22, you’re not risking very much. If you’re fifty-five or sixty…you know money is really important. I don’t care what anyone says. Money is really important. People say this and that…they’re full of shit.

Life is so much better with money. I’ve been without it, and I’ve had it. Let me tell ya, it’s a lot more fun. You get to do a lot more. You don’t have to wait in line. You don’t have to wait in line if you have money.

Noah: I think that’s great. I want to know what’s the correlation between liking to adopt kids so much and building houses. I think I see it already but I was wondering if you see something there. The idea of taking a piece of something that is kind of unused and allowing it to become something or whatever it’s going to become.

Yeah, that’s with kids too. You take this blank slate and you get to help somebody grow. I love kids. We have two biological kids and we decided to adopt. That’s been wonderful for us.

But I’ll tell you what happened to me. When I was 19 I didn’t have any money. And guys, I really didn’t have any money. I wanted to go on some kind of trip. So I hitchhiked from here, I went north to Washington, and hitchhiked three quarters of the way across Canada. By myself.

I was picked up by a couple. So you can see how many years ago that was. It must have been around 1970. 1969. So I was on this trip and I was picked up by this couple that was probably fifty-five years old. And they were in an RV, traveling around Canada. They picked me up.

They had two adopted kids. They were kids that had grown. And they were black. Afro-American. And I saw this seven or eight year old sitting on this mom’s lap, with their arms around each other. I thought it was pretty neat. I hadn’t seen that. But that impressed me so much that that could work. People don’t grow up with prejudice. They are fed stuff to get there.

It impressed me so much that when I was married and in my thirties, I looked back. It was from that trip that I got off my ass, hitchhiked, even though I didn’t have any money. If I hadn’t done that, if I had just gone to school and foregone those experiences, you’re influenced by that. That’s why getting out and doing stuff is important.

Don’t be in a hurry to take the standard job, wherever it is. The grocery store, the law firm…God don’t do that. Even, start a bar! It’s not what I’d like to do, but my daughter is 22 and she opened a bar. Go for it. Do something different.

When Phil Rapoport found his way into commercial property management in the 1980’s, he brought many of the things he had learned in hotel management with him. At the time, this was considered quite revolutionary, if not a little nonsensical. His bosses were hesitant about a tenant feedback survey, much like the comment cards left in nearly every hotel in America.

Why, his bosses wondered, would we leave ourselves open to criticism in that way?

This “hear no evil” attitude has been exactly what Phil has worked to eliminate from the commercial properties he has managed, including San Francisco’s Pyramid Center, where he currently serves as the General Manager.

After graduating from the University of San Francisco, Phil had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. A trip to Hawaii with his family inspired his career in the hospitality world. Phil could not, however, have imagined that his management of hotels would lead him today to be the GM of one of San Francisco’s most recognizable monuments. He made it this far because he acknowledged the importance of the little things, and continues to imbue his management team with similar values. These little things are what truly distinguish Phil from the stereotypical landlord.

Side note: We received an exclusive tour of the Trans America building, San Francisco’s signature building. We went from the security station to the tippy top of the building. It was sweet, and was capped off with a free hat giveaway.

Most people never get a chance to live in a high-rise apartment in downtown San Diego; Donna Fabbri can’t wait to tear hers up, and all in the name of sound quality. Donna has been in the audio/visual industry for thirty years, specializing in design solutions for audio/visual equipment. Her home is a testament to her own work. She proudly displays many pieces of what seem to be regular furniture, but in fact contain component audio equipment.

Donna began as a housewife answering phones from home, and has flourished to become a consultant capable of bridging the divide between the audio/visual world and the world of design. Through experience, Donna overcame the stereotypical doubts cast upon woman in the professional world, and found her voice to carry over the professional din. An audiophile with a passion for solving problems, Donna has taken full advantage of her opportunities and has now found herself in high demand.

Her standard email valediction reads something like a prayer: “May you always hear the music.” The wish is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what Donna does is more than that. More appropriate, perhaps, would be “May you always hear the music, and wonder from where it comes.”

Here is the transcription of Donna’s interview…

I had no idea where I was going to be. It’s taken me thirty years of my life.

When I started out, in what I did, and what I do now, is so totally different. And I’m very unique. There’s very few people that, it’s not like it’s brain surgery, it’s just that no one wants to go to either industry and cross over.

He started his company. I ran his company for him. I became his private personal assistant because we started making money. As an assistant, I would be taking notes at meetings. I met all the speaker manufacturers, one on one. I met all the electronic people, one on one. They would be talking together, and little did I know that I was learning the audio video.

When he started making money and having homes, he put me through design school and said that I could pick the designers out and do the A/V with the installers. I had come from both worlds from the very beginning. Nowadays, to merge two worlds together is very hard. An A/V person doesn’t want a designer to come in because it takes a lot of their money, a lot of their time. They have to concentrate on what’s going to go where and how it’s going to go in the room. Audio video people want to sell product, and they want the client out the door.

What I’m trying to teach them is that they’re one entity in one room, and they have to start bridging over and asking questions when a client comes in.

Designers, general contractors, interior designers, architects, I’m teaching them how to work with audio video people. They need to have us as a resource also, and when I say us, it’s from both worlds, but to have as a resource. For a designer to go in and to ask if there’s not going to be audio video is like asking if there’s not going to be a kitchen or a bathroom.

In a nutshell, that’s what I’m doing now. I have a consulting firm. I have my own clients. I have contracts. And the contracts are teaching all of these industries to work together.

What makes you passionate about audio video?

I was 22 when I saw it. Remember, I saw the best of the best coming through. So I loved it. I loved the sound. I loved the visual. I loved what it does from engineering and marketing. I can listen to any kind of music. If I’m awake, music has to be on. I absolutely love it.

I just want someone to show me or take me to some type of music I’ve never heard. I just feel it.

The one problem is if the speakers aren’t clear, I have a problem listening. I want to go up and fix them. That’s the bad part of my passion.

I’m really lucky that I found something that I’m passionate in. I guess one thing, as you get older, you decide what you want to do and why you’re doing it. So I live here in San Diego and all my family is in San Francisco. But I came down here to get my life together. I’ve kind of had a second chance. All of this condo needed A/V done and they started asking me.

In my point of view right now I want to do something that I love and that I’m passionate about and that’s challenging. But also, something that gives me flexibility on time, so that I can go up and see my children. Or have some time off. I don’t do well with the 8-5, cookie cutter type of job.

If you had to pinpoint the one hardest thing that you’ve had to overcome in your career, what would that be?

That I was a woman in the audio visual industry. Because women in the industry were considered as ‘candy.’ And not serious at the time. So that was a hard one for them to realize that I was serious about this, and that I could know as much or more than a man.

I can teach men how to talk to the family and the couples with a more personal attitude. Which a lot of the audio visual people don’t have. They come in, ‘What do you want?’ I want a plasma. Then they leave. They don’t ask anything about the room, if even all that’s needed is a plasma, just show a little bit more personal attention.

So do you overcome that with knowledge?

Experience. Knowledge, experience, I guess they go hand in hand.

I did not realize that I myself was my best product. Or my best asset. Not because of being the natural woman that I am, and then knowing all about the fields.

When did you realize that you were your best product?

Forty. I knew what I had. I realized that my boss knew I had it from the very beginning. I’ll do speeches for 400 people, and it’s all men in the room. They’re extra attentive when a woman is on stage. I’ve had doors open for me with couples. The woman will listen to me, and they’ll say flat out, because I’m a woman.

The one thing in business, in whatever you do, if you’re involved with people, and most people are.

The thing I’ve learned is to try and service the person and being attentive to them is probably your biggest thing.

You were with them for thirty-three years. Did you ever feel tempted to veer off the track?

I did.

If you could go back to when you were 22 years old, and you could tell yourself just one piece of advice, what would you tell yourself at 22?

I think when you have an instinct, or a feel, go for it. And not to be afraid. Don’t be hesitant. Not to do with an attitude. When you’re in meetings, to express something you think and feel because that’s what you’re feeling and experiencing something, and you never know what it means.

I was afraid a lot of times, especially with my Italian heritage. And especially being a woman. I was inhibited to speak up because it was all men in the room. But I had ideas. And I didn’t say them, for awhile.

Another thing I do, carrying from work into my personal life, is that I always want to be looked at as a nice lady. And that I listen to people. All the woman qualities I have, I bring to work also.

Speak up with a really nice attitude. A lot of times people are really boisterous. They assume no one is going to like their idea. So they never talk. If you come with the right attitude and say this is what I feel, and you say it. Who is going to begrudge you for that. It’s just a thought that you have or a feeling.

If you see there is a need for something, other people see that need too.

On our first day of the trip, with the RV puttering along the I-8 freeway between Phoenix and San Diego, Daniel made the desperation call to Aunt Patti at 8pm our time, 10pm Chicago time. Our original plan was to stay in the RV that had broken down twice and guzzled $300 in gas already. But since we needed to get some rest and get out of the vehicle we’d been housed in for twelve hours (and would be staying in for the next month), Daniel decided he’d ask if we could stay at Aunt Patti and Uncle Jerry’s beach house in San Diego.

Understanding our situation, they gave Daniel the ok from two thousand miles away to stay there for the next two nights, and we were saved from sleeping in the trenches of “Maggie Miracles.” Upon arrival, we were exposed to a piece of real estate that was representative of Uncle Jerry’s successful entrepreneurial career, and before we even walked through the door, I knew that we had to have a PTP interview with the Uncle that I had heard so much about.

We met up with Uncle Jerry three months and sixty-eight interviews later in his Rockford, Illinois home, which closely resembled what “the American Dream” might look like. A long driveway leading to a secluded home, complemented by green grass, tall trees and a gleaming blue Aston Martin as the garage’s new centerpiece. It was evident that after staying and visiting Uncle Jerry’s three residences, that the real estate business had treated him well over the years. But we were there to find out a little bit more about the man who stays out of the press and has chartered flights for the President. The journey begins like this…

At 21 years old, Jerry’s goal was to become a lawyer. He completed his undergraduate degree with a major in business, and began pursuing his educational goal of completing law school to become a tax lawyer. After graduation Jerry went to work for Arthur Anderson, who at the time was hiring about fifty lawyers to work in their tax department. Wanting to become a tax lawyer, Anderson’s training program offered a good foundation and valuable experience, which Jerry obtained over the 3 years he spent with the firm. Before long, family matters took precedence, and Jerry returned to his hometown of Rockford, IL where he joined a law firm for 2 years.

Always wanting to go into business for himself, Jerry left the Rockford firm to start his own. This decision resulted in lots of success, but he knew it wasn’t where he wanted to go for the long term.

In his time as a lawyer Jerry did some work for various real estate developers and came to realize that what they were doing was not all that complicated. Searching for a profession that didn’t determine the money you made by the hours you worked, he decided to make a subtle shift from law to real estate. While still holding his duties as a lawyer, Jerry and a friend started to do a few deals with small office buildings. And so his career in real estate began.

He eventually left law altogether, and started to focus on his real estate development business. He started by developing small office buildings for insurance companies, then moved to retail development. Small strip centers developed into bigger grocery store anchor centers and ultimately cascaded into “big box” developments with stores like Target and Home Depot.

The path was not always easy for Jerry, and the story that was discussed in our interview outlined Jerry’s strong optimism and his willingness to take risks for something he believed would work. One of his first big deals was him and his partners wanted to go to market with a big strip center. Some of his partners wanted to jump at an exit strategy that included a handsome six figure profit. They perceived the debt level to be high and felt that they would be “on the hook” by proceeding with the plan.

But Jerry had a strong feeling about the opportunity. He went to his banker, Jack Joyce, the man who made loans to Jerry on the basis of character “when no one else would.” Jerry’s plan was to buy out the partners whom opted for the exit strategy, so that he wouldn’t have to sell his part of the investment. Consequently, Jerry put up his house, putting himself and his family at risk, to come up with enough capital to buy out the remaining partners.

Two and a half years after he and two other partners put up their houses, Jerry’s team turned a profit that would have netted them in the six-figure range into a sum with a couple more zeros. By trusting his gut instinct and taking an educated risk, Jerry was able to reap more profitable rewards.

Here is the advice that Jerry had to offer young adults on risk taking:

“Young people think they have so much to lose. They really don’t have that much to lose. You look at the people just starting out in the world that are taking risks, and they can do that because they are young and you can start over if it doesn’t work. It’s the old people that have a lot of money that are fearful of losing something. But at your age, I can’t see why you would be afraid of taking a risk. But it’s about calculating your risks, and acting upon them.”

Author’s Note:

A couple of interesting points that I did not manage to discuss in this write-up that I wanted to include compliment “the character” banker Jack Joyce saw in Jerry when he loaned him money in a time of need. These actions that both Jerry and his wife Patti have taken over the past ten years exemplify their passion to help others in the community and across the globe.

When I first came to know Jerry’s son Hank at the University of Arizona, I asked him how many brothers and sisters he had. He said six, not a common number for a family. So we got to talking and that’s when I first learned that Hank had a sister from China, a brother from Hong Kong, one sister from Germany and another from Albania , as well as his biological brother and sister from Rockford.

What Jerry’s wife Patti has done with the blessing of a successful real estate career is adopted three children to help better their lives. The Weber’s love, support, and upbringing in their family has allowed Gavin, now 24 and living in the Chicago area, to pursue a career in architecture, and daughters Selma and Emma to have the opportunities that they would not have otherwise.

Other Related Interviews

We immediately had a similarity with Jen when we sat down at our business office, aka Starbucks. She took a 3 1/2 month road trip in an RV when she graduated college too! Unfortunately that road didn’t lead her to her true passion, but she learned a lot along the way. These lessons later gave her the courage to leap head first into what eventually would become her career.

Her story begins at Purdue University where she studied Communication. From there she furthered her education at the Illinois Art Institute-Chicago. There she found reward in having a finished product at the end of the day. Growing up, her engineer dad designing dream homes in his spare time. Her mom was creative too, always making something special out of nothing in particular. Jen put the two together and developed an interest in interior design. But when it came time for college (the first time) she was discouraged from pursuing design because she felt that she would have to be a brilliant artist and that there wasn’t much money in it. Her lack of knowledge of what interior design really consisted of led her down an HR career path after Purdue.

She didn’t dislike her HR positions, but after about six years she felt she had to do something else rather than show up for work and go through the motions. She started to take notice of the things she really enjoyed doing and remembered the things she had seen her parents enjoy. She looked around the room, took notice of her surroundings and realized that she had to see her interior design dreams through. She signed up for interior design school within two days. She knew that interior design didn’t pay well, but took a leap of faith, deciding that even a small reward was worth the risk.

She would soon realize that a number of her pre-conceived notions about interior design were not accurate. She found that designing includes a lot of work with auto CAD. She also learned that it was more architectural based than she had known. Being artistic was not nearly as important as being detail oriented and organized, two of her strongest skills. She loved what she was doing and after two and a half more years of school, she accepted a position with a hospitality design firm in Chicago.

She has worked on hotel projects in downtown Chicago, Florida and Virginia, as well as condos in Jamaica. She is motivated by what each project brings. She loves going to work every day and feels accomplished by seeing a project go from the drawing board to life. All because she took the time to put two and two together and take a risk in the pursuit of happiness.

She advises students to, “try not to get pushed into things because they seem like the right thing for someone else or because it is what you think you are suppose to do. Take the time to constructively figure yourself out. Mark what motivates you, note those times you are most content with and what it is you are doing when those moments pass. Write down the things you are good at, verbalize your characteristics and then talk to people about these things to see how you can translate them into a career. Most importantly don’t be afraid to try anything or to fail. You might just accidentally bump into your passion while trying.”

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