Why did I do this?

Here is a post I just did for StartUpPrincess.com --

A lot of people ask me how and why we started this business. What were the events that led up to it? What was that moment like?There were two seeds planted in my soul that affected me before we had ever started TodaysMama.

When I was at home with my first child I had an “Oprah” moment. I haven’t had many - because let’s be honest, I just don’t have time to watch TV period. But I remember watching when Julie Aigner Clark of Baby Einstein was being interviewed. I marveled at the success she had, lamented that I was buying her Baby Einstein videos with my spare change, and then I left completely inspired in a way that I had never been about business. I said to myself - if she can do that with those movies, I can do something one day too. I remember exactly where I had the thought - on my way out the door of my tiny condo and on the way to the park.

The second moment was a moment of panic. I was a few weeks from delivering my second child (which was not too much later, my kids are just 20 months apart). And I was laying on my bed crying hormonally as some pregnant women do. But I had an almost paralyzing fear come over me. My last job seemed further away, my career and job marketability felt even further away. I was having those irrational “What would happen if you died” thoughts and was giving my husband all kinds of scary scenarios. As much as I loved being a mother and as excited I was for my second baby, a helpless feeling came over me as I realized how vulnerable I felt to the world outside of my ever expanding path of parenthood.

The idea to start our first book came just 2 months after my daughter was born. I had two experiences fresh in my mind as we talked about the idea and inspiration for our first book. But something inside me told me I could do it because I had seen other women do even bigger things. And something inside of me felt comforted to be reaching out to do something exciting and to pour my passion and skills into. As the years have gone by, having my own business has given me a sense of confidence and independence with regard to the unknowns and insecurities of the future. But it has also shown me that I have the ability to create. The closest thing that I can honestly compare it to is having a baby. In creating a business, you build something that lives and breathes and moves about in the world bouncing off people and hopefully making a difference. It is the perfect marriage of the central elements in my life that I am frankly obsessed with: my babies and the art of business.

Comments

[emily]

gracias.