A Nod to Dad

The entrepreneurial spirit is in my blood, and that comes from my dad. I often turn to him for advice on running my business, but there are some ideas he's ingrained in me for as long as I can remember, and those ideas have become second nature:

What goes around comes around.
If I had a dollar for every time my dad told me this...As teens my sisters and I would joke, and roll our eyes when we heard the phrase rolling off his tongue for the umpteenth time. "We know dad..." But in doing that he made sure I'd always remember to be upfront and honest, even when it's painful or difficult, by treating people the way I would want to be treated. And he not only says this, but he lives it every day. As a Realtor he is a mediator and on an ethics and arbitration hearing panel, and I am so proud that his peers have twice voted him "Realtor of the Year" for the professional, ethical manner in which he handles business.

You can be anything you want.
I'm incredibly lucky. From an early age I knew I wanted to do something related to art for a career. And what makes me even luckier is that I have parents who wholeheartedly supported me the entire way. My dad was big on Zig Ziglar and Earl Nightingale, and I'd always see their books and tapes around the house growing up. He told my sisters and I stories about the power of positive thinking, what the mind is capable of and how we had to put it to work for us. He basically made sure that we knew that if we wanted something and set our mind to it anything's possible. And I love him for that!