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Showing posts from April 6, 2014

3 LIFE & ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSONS LEARNED FROM LOSS By Johnetta G. Paye, Esq.

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  “You want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family, and the people around you.” – Oprah Winfrey Normally, I blog about legal topics and celebrity news.   For the last week, I have been in an introspective place and it influenced my decision to write this blog post.  Last week, my secretary had a family member pass and it made me reflect on life, loss and my own personal experiences.   In the fall of 2013, a close friend of mine passed away.  She was like a sister to me and we would always share our hopes and dreams for the future with each other.  My friend died young and had an unfinished life.  She did not get an opportunity to achieve many of her personal, professional and entrepreneurial goals.  She would always tell me that she was waiting for the perfect time to start her business, but the perfect time never came. Life’s tragedies have a way of teaching us the most profound lessons.  When my friend passed I struggled for months to

Who's Holding Your Ladder? By Coach Deborah Gray-Young

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In his book, Who’s Holding Your Ladder , Dr. Samuel Chand recounts an experience he had that led to a poignant Aha moment while waiting for an appointment. He observed a workman on a ladder painting a building.  The workman had climbed the ladder as far as he could but then had to extend his arm to perform his task. Dr. Chand noticed that the workman could only reach so far without losing his balance.  What he also noticed was that if the ladder were not held steady, it greatly decreased the workman's confidence about stretching beyond the ladder.   This brought Dr. Chand's attention to who was holding the workman’s ladder?  Was the ladder holder watching the workman so that he could anticipate what the workman's need might be while on the upper rungs or was he just holding the ladder in place and not really paying attention to the workman's activity? Dr. Chand's Aha! moment was that who is holding your ladder and what they are focused on while you are on the

The Rise of the MOMpreneur By Kayann Comeaux

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Photo Credit: Happy Mom Adventures Amidst the ongoing debate and battle of stay-at-home moms versus mothers returning to the workplace, I noticed the trend of women merging the two successfully. Today, women are taking control of their futures and finances aren’t an exclusion. There’s a new breed of business woman on the line and she’s as savvy with expense reports as she is available for PTA. She’s a MOMprenuer. I joined this allegiance a few years ago after the war to meet corporate demands took a toll on my life goals. I’m educated and driven, creative and family-oriented but there was a lack of balance and shortage of security in my field. I was uncomfortable knowing the hours, days and sacrifices dedicated to my career could leave me jobless at the sight of corporate cutbacks or layoffs. I’d been a writer, actor and public speaker my entire run in corporate America but never took the leap of faith into building my brand. It’s not easy to take that leap for fear of lack in