Two questions I get asked most often:
- How did you decide to start speaking?
- How did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I answer them both the same:
I just did.
No one picked me. No one called me up and asked me to start a company. Sure, I get asked to speak places, but at first no one invited me to fill out a speaking application. It wasn't a job I applied for because I happened to see an online listing.
I used to know a guy who after eight grinding years finally made enough money in Los Angeles to be a full time actor. Cobbling together a resume of theater, commercials, and cameos, he "made" it.
Once, he was telling me about the decision to quit law school and move across the country to Hollywood. He fully expected that as soon as he showed up, people would be calling him to go on auditions and star in their films. Instead, he drove tour busses and waited tables for almost a decade.
No one cared that he just showed up. There was no orientation that all aspiring actors must attend upon their arrival in LA where they're handing out bit parts and pilot scripts. Ditto for new fashion designers in Paris, country music dreamers in Nashville, tech hopefuls in Silicon Valley, or future Broadway stars in NYC.
In all of those cases and places, you've got to pick yourself. You've got to decide what it is you want to do - and who it is you want to be - and then do the work. The hard work. The grinding and the busking. When you make it, it'll be you who decided to make it. To push yourself. To face fear and rejection.