It's easy to tell others to follow their passion. It's much harder to do it yourself.
That theme was strong at this year's Forbes Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia, where entrepreneurs, artists, doctors and more gave their advice on following their calling, holding onto a sense of purpose and keeping their sanity in the process. That last bit is harder than it looks, and many of the speakers were honest about how difficult finding balance while running a business can be. One important tidbit? Meaningful work and success often go hand in hand.
"I didn’t have a roadmap, I just did it because it was meaningful to me and I wanted to disrupt the beauty industry," Michelle Phan told Kelly Osbourne in an interview about her nascent beauty empire.
“This job is hard and it doesn’t get any easier,” Austin McChord, founder of Datto, disclosed about running a startup with a "unicorn" valuation. “If you don’t keep learning and get better, you drown.”
Emanuel Yekutiel, deputy finance director at Hillary for America, emphasized how important it is to do something with value. It was the fight for same-sex marriage that got Yekutiel into political financing. “I want to walk down the aisle one day," he revealed, "and I realized how important it was for me to get involved,”
“The same reason I was told I would fail was the reason why I succeeded," said "dancing violinist" Lindsey Stirling. "It was different and intriguing.”
Rookie editor and Jill of all trades Tavi Gevinson hit on her experience that being emotionally honest not only helps with mental health -- it can actually be good for business. "It’s a bonus to find that when you share or make yourself vulnerable instead of trying to prey on peoples’ insecurities that they connect with that," she said.
Emily Weiss, founder and CEO of Glossier, agreed on the importance of authenticity for business success. “'Sex sells' is going to become an increasingly outdated notion,” she said. “We think that self sells — as do brands that embrace authenticity.”
Kathryn Minshew, founder and CEO of The Muse, thinks honesty and a sense of purpose have to match up. "Be upfront about the values around which you make decisions," she suggested.
“Getting money in and of itself is not an accomplishment,” Sarah Kunst of Fordis Partners emphasized to her audience. “It doesn’t mean anything until you have a use of funds to create more value. If somebody gave you $1 million tomorrow, what would you do with that check?”
The advice given by Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, was simple: “What’s the thing you love, and that you’re so incredibly passionate about that if you got fired you’d still want to do it?”
