There once was a dream that turned out to be the birth and death of me. Like many before me and so many more after, I wanted to be my own boss. And with that in mind, I started on a path of self-destruction where I erased many things that I knew in order to embark on a life like no other: new rules, new people, new ambitions and mostly, a new me. There is no change without letting go.

Was it a good decision? It took me a while to determine that it did not matter. What matters is that I’m here now, with the life that I chose, with the goals that I achieved and the many ones that I still have to chase.

If I am to give any advice, after twenty-plus years of business: what you want is to survive it. Survive the pressure, survive those who tell you you cannot do it, survive those that, condescendingly, will always tell you what to do and how to do it because, unlike you, they cannot do it themselves, survive the preaching, survive the envy, survive your own want to do more, faster. Once all is brushed away, confidence inevitably ensues.

And once it does, take a moment to praise yourself for all, for letting go, for forgetting how it is to be anything else but who you are and because of it, revel in your own beauty, comfort and eventually, as you are standing tall among those who were floored around you, try to pick up as many as you can and show them that there is more to them, when they are ready.

It is not easy to be on your own. Nobody tells you what to do; you have to carve your own path, fight many battles without being trained, hurt yourself in order to know how to avoid that, summon the incredible focus required to joggle between forty to fifty tasks each day, learn how to be all that you were not taught to be: an accountant, a salesperson, a leader, a people pleaser, a negotiator, an admired human being.

Being your own boss has lifelong powers that go far beyond the carrier benefits. One learns to successfully cope with the vicissitudes of life. At some point, you will find yourself impervious to destructive pettiness and fearful incertitude that block so many minds from living free. It is not the freedom we require, it is the knowledge and energy to deal with the fact that we have it.