TAKING RISKS

Risk. This word stuck in my mind prominently as I was sitting in on an innovation meeting at my 9-5 job in the middle of 2012. Great innovators risk, great leaders risk...the movers and the shakers risk. While the intention of this meeting was to spur us towards innovation within the company and the creative process, what they didn't know is that while sitting in the auditorium writing "RISK" in big letters on my notes pages my mind was racing with one thought: Maiedae.

I began my 9-5 job right out of college. I met the VP of marketing during my senior year in high school and he mentored me through college. He spoke to me about passion, what that truly meant, and the value of living out your passions and doing what you truly love. This man was doing what he truly loved and his passion became something I wanted to strive for, even though at the time I wasn't quite clear on what that looked like. I accepted an internship with the company during my junior year of college and continued side-work through my senior year with the same team. A few days after returning from my honeymoon, I packed a box of decorations and started my first full-time job, nameplate and all! Over the next three years, a couple things happened. I worked as one of their only in-house graphic designers, I learned a lot, challenged myself, and on the side...Maiedae was born. I remember sitting at my desk one day shortly after I started my job trying to think of what name to type into blogger. I wrote a long list of possibilities, said them over and over again and then after saying Maiedae, the word just felt right, it looked right, and I remember talking to my business partner and saying, "One day this word will mean something". Fast forward a couple months and I'm busy in my living room floor putting together handmade pieces and trying to figure out this "blog" thing. ;) At the time, Jenny was living in Rome and she would come down to stay with me during the weekends, model for me and we would make dreams and plans for what Maiedae could someday be.

Photo

By 2012 my heart began feeling a major divide. I was working 32-40 hours per week and then on the nights and weekends I was blogging, meeting with Jenny at Starbucks, and designing. I loved my job, but I LOVED Maiedae. Maiedae made me feel alive, filled me with joy, and made everything my mentor told me about passion make complete sense. I knew this is what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to run a business full-time with my best friend and make big things happen.

The first step of risk for Maiedae happened in 2011 when Jenny and I were meeting in Panera during one of her visits to Atlanta. We had a long conversation about the business and where we wanted it to go. We were joyful, passionate, and so thrilled for the future. At that point we had already started proving to ourselves that we could make things happen, but we realized some risk was needed. That night in Panera, Jenny decided to up-root herself from her job and home in Rome, Georgia, and move to Atlanta. It was a huge risk for her, leaving everything she had known for over four years to come to a new city, find a new job, find a roommate, and start this new dream of ours.

Over the next year Jenny and I began seeing the vision for Maiedae more and more clearly as we tried new things, experimented with ideas, and developed a path and mission for our business. This brings me to the 2012 holidays. The divide in my heart was getting larger and larger. I began feeling this sense that I would never truly thrive in my 9-5 job, because my passion is to not only be creative and be a designer, but it's to be an entrepreneur. I needed it. Jon sat me down one night and said, "You're quitting you're job and you're doing Maiedae full-time." After my jaw hit the floor, I started crying. I was scared, excited, overwhelmed...I was overcome with every emotion, but at the core my emotion was peace. This was so right and it was time to take that risk.

February 15th will be my last day at my 9-5 job.

Being able to say this fills my heart with overwhelming joy. This is going to be a big year. Big things are happening with Maiedae. Jenny and I have spent a lot of time recently talking about our business, its history, its future...and we are so on fire to be able to live out this dream of ours. We've realized that in order to make things happen for Maiedae, risk will be involved...so here we go, the next chapter in our story begins this month.

Also, this:



"This is life people...you got air comin' through your nose, you got a heartbeat!!!...That means it's time to do somethin'!" 

Amen, amen, AMEN!