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On Friday I spoke at Hofstra University in NY with an incredible group of strong and successful entrepreneurs on finance, business and working for ourselves. I was starting to get really sick Friday morning and lost my voice by the end of the talk which has never happened to be before but I powered through and got everything done before losing my voice entirely!

On the panel were 4 other women who worked corporate jobs before deciding to launch their own brands. It was moderated by the head of the business school and included 5 questions for each of us to discuss. When asked what my favorite part of being an entrepreneur was, I jumped to saying that having a flexible schedule was at the top. Then I thought about the question and realized that I could care less about having a flexible schedule. Sure, sitting in my bed typing this right now because I still feel sick is nice and all but when you run your own company you don’t get to take many days off. Vacations and holidays are filled with work even if you’re desperate for some time off.

My answer to that question is the feeling of success. After working on something for weeks and getting turned down, or expecting a response from someone that you’re thinking will tell you no and tells you yes is an indescribable feeling. There’s many more perks to running your own company but when I think about what excites me the most, it’s that exact feeling.

In the audience a student asked how to battle guilt when taking time off comes into play. I told the student that what has helped me (as someone who has battled guilt during holidays or vacations) is to take 1 hour of time away to work. If you’re like me, there’s nothing that can take the feeling of guilt away and it’s a shitty feeling. To combat it just work, but work a little bit less. That suggestion goes into how important staying on a schedule is and why I do my best even when traveling to maintain certain parts of that schedule. That may be working out or meditating.

Meeting everyone on Friday was so lovely and I look forward to meeting more of you at my talk at Stanford in January!