So I’ve been asked to speak at an elementary school and share my story and It inspired me to reflect on the type of kid I was when I was in elementary school. Moreover I was trying to figure out what the heck am I going to say to 5-10 year olds about life, success and failure. I’ve read tons of books about entrepreneurs who started a lemonade stand, ant farm or neighborhood newspaper and while I could relate to those stories I did neither of the above. What I did like to do was cut up clothes and sew them back up and make new ones (think cutting up jean and making a skirt.) My parents didn’t have a lot of money when my brother and I were younger so I always tried to reinvent my clothes. I remember hiding my scraps of clothes and one day my mother found them and went crazy. The next day she bought me a tiny pink sewing machine. I was a little confused because I thought that I was in trouble but boy did I use the heck out of that thing.  At the time I wanted to be a teacher and a fashion designer but what I didn’t realize was I loved more then anything to create things, that’s right turn scraps into skirts, that little pink easy bake oven’s of sewing machines gave me the creative freedom to do whatever and create whatever I wanted.

So I never started a lemonade stand, but I sold the heck out of some girl scout cookies as a kid and my mother never focused on my short comings other then my teenage obsession with boys.  She always supported my strengths even if she couldn’t afford it she forced me to use my imagination, and make things happen. She showed me how to create the world in my bedroom without me even knowing it.  I can attribute a lot of what I do now to those very moments when my dolls were my first clients, and my bed room floor was a runway and you couldn’t tell that my scraps wern’t good enough for NY Fashion week. Some where along the years we loose that adventurous side…we get safe (a.k.a. scared) how do we get our childhood imaginations back?

Tags: entrepreneur, felecia hatcher, girl scout, girl scout cookies, Lemonade stand, young entrepreneur