Kylee Deering | Blogger

Lou Mongello recently came to campus to talk with students about his career and how he went from being an attorney to being an entrepreneur. While listening to his story about quitting his 6-figure job, packing up all of his possessions and family and moving to a place he’d never seen in Florida, simply to take a risk with the hopes that it would all work out in the end got me thinking. In life we must take a leap of faith in order to succeed. In college we oftentimes lose sight of this. We work hard in school in order to get good grades to get a good job that pays well and has good benefits and can support our wants and needs. It hardly ever occurs to us that if we have a little faith, we can pursue our passions. Those can be career options too. The idea of creating our own business like Lou did or pursuing something that might put us in debt for awhile is scary. The norm in our society is the thought that doing something that absurd is too risky and it would never work out. We’re told to get a well paying job to make sure you can pay all your bills and support your family. This idea that you can truly love your job is sometimes a lost concept in America.

Lou talked about the things students would do if money wasn’t an object. Answers ranged from travel to creating art to being a filmmaker. If money wasn’t an object, we would follow our passions and find ways to turn them into careers. It made me wonder — why don’t we do this now? Why don’t we find a way to make traveling a career? Why don’t we shoot for the stars and set a goal to sell art to successful galleries and high bidders? Why don’t we turn what we love doing into our career just like Lou did? The possibilities are endless in a world where education on anything you’d possibly need to know is at the tips of our fingers. We are so fortunate to do (almost) whatever we want in terms of careers. Why do we settle for what’s easy or what we “should” do?

I challenge everyone to take risks, make a leap of faith and make your passion into your career. If you’re truly passionate about it, that love will make your business a success. You’ll do what it takes to make it so. You’ll also wake up every day doing what you enjoy doing. That alone will make your business prosper.

In the words of Lou Mongello, #StayHungry.