You Are Smart Enough–Figure it Out

What's the single biggest piece of advice you have for women who are trying to break into a male-dominated field, or for anyone really who's trying to be a pioneer or a trailblazer?

I think that one of the biggest pieces of advice I actually had to give myself to get started was I think so many times, and I certainly felt this in the beginning, I thought about all the reasons why I couldn't do something. I thought about all of the things I didn't know how to do. I didn't go to business school. I don't have my MBA. I don't know how to build a financial model. I don't know how to market. I don't know how to, you know, balance millions of dollars on a balance sheet. And those were all the reasons why not to start a company.

Absolutely. And so, I remember having this conversation with myself one day, in my head. And I said, it sounds funny now, but I remember saying, "You know what Leah, this is not rocket science. You are smart enough to figure this out. So go figure it out." And I think you have to have enough confidence in yourself that you'll be able to learn, you'll be able to learn quickly. And then surround yourself with people that can help you. And that was really key for me. At that moment I said, "You know what, I am going to figure this out." And the things that I don't know how to do, I'm going to go find advisors and awesome team members to help me build it. And I think that was really the key. And that's the advice I would give to entrepreneurs just starting out.