Julia Child: The ultimate entrepreneur?

Julia Child: Lessons for Entrepreneurs

Do you know what you’d like to be doing, career-wise, in five or ten years? (Or now, perhaps?)

Some certainly do. I have a feeling that, for my part, the future hold many roles. There was a time when I thought I would be an academic: I finished two master’s degrees, and the coursework for a PhD, but realized more years put toward a thesis wasn’t a good investment if you don’t want the end-goal. Then we moved to New York and I dabbled in magazines a bit before starting at the bottom at a mid-size book publisher. I took an internship, and worked as an editorial assistant for a few years, eventually working my way up to Editor before leaving to stay home with Hudson. Since then, blogging has become a part-time job, and so I get to put on quite a few creative hats: freelance writer, photographer, publisher, advertiser… somedays it feels like one big internship. It’s challenging and dynamic, humbling but full of possibility—it can be very rewarding. And it has opened a lot of doors—though it’s hard to know which ones to step through right now. I am so lucky to get to stay home with Hudson and Skyler these years (my primary role is caretaker). But I imagine that one day—sniff, sniff—they’ll go off to school and I’ll be happy to build on this media experience.

But while I’m very happy blogging at the moment, I do imagine that the role will evolve. So I’m especially fascinated whenever I hear about men and women who create a job for themselves—often after devoting a number of years to parenting, and sometimes simply to fuel a creative need.

Julia Child, of course, is first to come to mind when thinking of inspiring self-starters. She took her first cooking lesson at the age of 32! There’s a great article on Inc. with her “Recipe for Entrepreneurial Success,” my favorite being the author’s distilled: “Don’t wait till everything is perfectly organized to start a new project. You have to learn along the way.” 

Later today, I’ll be introducing another new blog series that you’ll find appearing regularly on Hither & Thither. “The Work We Do” will feature creatives who work in fields many people aspire to, and which will ask each person how (and why, and when) they started doing what they do. I love getting a look behind the scenes. I hope you will, too!

Where do you stand on this? Are you in your dream job? What was your trajectory? Be sure and check back later today and join the conversation!

P.S. Update: The Work We Do archives. Also, What I’m most proud of. And a productivity hack.

[Photo of Julia Child taping The French Chef via Biography.com, courtesy of Paul Child.]

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