Entrepreneurship almost didn’t happen for me.
There was a time when I believed the corporate ladder was the only path to success. You grind, keep your head down, smile when it’s hard, and someday you retire with a watch and a 401(k). But then something shifted, and it all started with a $50 Marshalls gift card.
I had just helped a major financial institution generate over $1 million in new business in under three months. Not theoretically. Not team-wide. Me. That’s what my work ethic, my network, and my hustle produced. And when it came time for recognition, the thank-you came in the form of a $50 department store card.
That slap-in-the-face moment wasn't about the amount. It was the message: we don’t see you. And if I allowed myself to keep showing up, underpaid and undervalued, I’d be choosing to be unseen.
That was the moment entrepreneurship became a must, not a dream.
Corporate America Was My Business School
Here’s the paradox: even though that moment pushed me out of the corporate nest, those same years in banking and investment taught me everything I needed to fly.
Corporate America was my free MBA. It exposed me to power structures, language, culture, and, most importantly, systems. I learned how the real money moved. I sat across from people who didn’t look like me, didn’t think I belonged in the room, but I watched how they operated. How they thought. What they valued. I saw average people making extraordinary money, not because they were better, but because they understood the system and knew how to leverage it.
And I knew if I could learn the system, I could build my own.
The Unsexy Reality of Entrepreneurship
Let’s be honest. Entrepreneurship is glamorized to death. Fancy reels, luxury cars, and passive income myths. But the truth is far less curated.
Entrepreneurship is drowning slowly while learning how to breathe. It’s watching your bank account dip while your belief has to stay strong. It’s fixing a property with foundational issues and still figuring out how to make it income-producing. It’s learning how not to panic when clients ghost you, partners underperform, or someone you trusted walks off with your playbook.
It’s not for the emotionally fragile.
Corporate America taught me that, too: how to show up, deliver, and smile when I wanted to yell, kick, and scream. Those were emotional reps. And they mattered. I learned that results matter more than feelings, performance over popularity, KPIs over complaints.
Don’t Quit the Job. Quit the Mentality.
You don’t have to leave your job to become an entrepreneur. You just have to stop thinking like an employee.
While I was in banking, I was running reconnaissance. I used every paycheck as a tuition payment. I studied the scripts, the systems, and the org charts. I made calls others wouldn’t, I pulled up on clients, I built networks. Because I knew I wasn’t there to stay—I was there to learn the playbook.
Entrepreneurship starts long before your resignation letter. It starts with curiosity, work ethic, and strategic observation.
The $50 Gift Card Wasn’t Insulting. It Was My Fuel.
That $50 Marshalls gift card was the best bad gift I’ve ever received.
It gave me clarity. It made me dangerous. It reminded me I was building someone else’s dream when I could be constructing my own. But I don’t regret it. Because I learned to treat every job like an apprenticeship for my next level.
Today, I build ecosystems where entrepreneurs thrive, not just survive. I lead trainings, build teams, and coach others out of paycheck mentalities and into profitable purpose. Because I've lived the moments that nearly broke me. I remember the tension between "play it safe" and "bet on yourself."
So, What’s Your Marshall Fields Gift Card Moment?
Every entrepreneur has one. That moment you realize staying where you are will cost more than the risk of leaving. That one decision, that one insult, that one realization where the illusion of security finally cracks.
If you’re in that place now, good. Stay there long enough to feel it, then act. Let that moment shape your next move. Let it be your proof that it’s time to stop renting your life and start owning your future.
And when you do step out, don’t forget what corporate America taught you.
Just don’t forget why you left, either.
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The world around us wasn’t built by the exceptional. It was built by everyday people who were willing to do exceptional things. Let’s build taller buildings together.
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