Kristina Anderson, president of EasyRead Copywriting, left a steady job at a Seattle hospital to start her own freelance writing service. Amy Gillespie, a full-time music teacher, left an impressive title and the prestige of the corporate world. Peggy Durbin and Michele Vochosky are leaving government jobs to be full-time co-owners of a Los Alamos bookstore. Why do these women walk away from steady paychecks and the benefits of reliable employment to step out on a ledge as small business owners? They did it for the purpose and passion they want in their lives. Kristina is a single mother who tried to fit the traditional employee role as a program director for a hospital literacy program. She loved working with patients and their families, but felt stifled by the bureaucracy of hospital administration. She had creative ideas that she believed would better serve the patients and was often told, “You can’t do this, or you can’t do that.” She continues, “I’m the type of person who finds it a challenge when someone tells me I can’t do something. I immediately say, ‘watch me!’” Kristina didn’t just have her own welfare to be concerned with. She had a son to support as well. Leaving a steady job with benefits seemed like a crazy move. She had actually tried to make a living as a freelance writer of short stories while offering editing services when her son was younger, and they nearly starved. She was delivering papers in the early morning just to try to make ends meet. Her son asked, “Mom, what makes you think it will work this time when it didn’t work before?” Kristina’s answer is quick and to the point, when she says, “Because I’m going make it work!” Her mother had just passed away, and when she took a leave of absence to return to New Mexico and bury her mother, she had plenty of time to think about her own life. After spending too much time away from her son and working in a position that wouldn’t allow her to put her good ideas to work, she returned to Seattle, and gave a two-week notice. She started her own writing service, was determined to make it work, and she did just that. She managed to get her first contract job and it paid very well. She then secured another contract, and then another. The rest is history. Kristina returned to New Mexico, bringing her work with her, and lives in a beautiful home in the north valley of Albuquerque. She walks her dogs whenever she pleases, puts on her gardening hat when the mood strikes her, and has a steady clientele. She has the time and energy to be active in both her profession and the local community, serving on boards and literacy programs. She’s been successfully working from home for several years now and says she “loves her life.” But best of all, she says her son was visiting recently and said to her, “Mom, I’m really proud of you and what you’ve accomplished. I think I get my entrepreneurial talent from you.” Amy’s challenges involved an identity struggle. Who was she, if she didn’t have that prestigious title and public recognition? “We can get so wrapped up in the title we hold in our jobs when the truth is, we can all be replaced,” she says. “If we leave, there is someone else right behind us, ready and willing to step in and carry the responsibility and weight of a prestige position for a company. Who we are shouldn’t be about our title,” she says. “If that’s what matters, it’s okay—if it works for you. But for me, who I am is more about serving the people I teach in a way that a corporate environment wouldn’t accommodate.” “People are in desperate need of finding that place where they can go and forget about time—where they can spend an hour or two and feel refreshed and peaceful inside. Music, and I’m sure, other art forms, will take you to that place—where time stands still and you are so deep in the moment and the beauty of the music that you forget everything. I get to be the person who helps others find that place, and I couldn’t be happier.” When she sits down with her students, she asks, “What do you want to accomplish with your music and how can I help?” She is happy to work with someone who simply wants to learn how to accompany himself or herself while singing a favorite song, or to work with a student that wants to become a guitar major at a university. She gets incredible satisfaction from watching them improve and reach their musical goals. Amy is now blissfully happy, teaching guitar full time. When asked how she chose her new career—so different from the role she played for many years in the corporate environment, she says, “It was like stepping on a rake and having it hit me right between the eyes. I didn’t choose it, it chose me.” The lure of having their own business had been tapping on their shoulders for a long time. They are both avid readers and love to be around books. So when the former owner of Otowi Station Bookstore said she was ready to retire, and asked if they would like to buy the store, their answer was a resounding, “YES!” So they wrote a business plan, talked to the bank, and met with the accountant. Within a couple of months, they were holding the key to the bookstore’s front door, and the key to a new future. They said they naturally had little voices that kept them awake from time to time, but they were quick to quiet the doubts as they got closer to the first day of ownership. In the six months that they’ve had the store, they’ve learned a lot, but they say they have never been happier. Peggy is preparing to retire from the labs. She says with a huge grin, “I’m retiring from working full time so I can work full time.” All of these women have a message they want you to hear. If you have had a long-time dream of owning your own business, or you find you don’t fit into the traditional role of employment, don’t let fear paralyze you into settling for less – just go for it. Did Kristina, Amy, Peggy, and Michele have obstacles and roadblocks to overcome? You bet! But these are some very determined ladies. Line up your support system with a business plan, appropriate financing, and a nest egg, and then take the leap. You may find yourself feeling like Peggy, “If I were any happier, I’d be twins. It’s like getting paid to eat ice cream.” So give Kristina a call if you need an article written, or contact Amy so she can help you find your own song, or stop in at the Otowi Station Bookstore in Los Alamos and meet Ike, the Belgian sheepdog. He will greet you with pooch smooches and a friendly paw. Above all, be true to yourself. If you aren’t living your life the way you want to, change it. Who cares how old you are or why you shouldn’t do it—if you are older, just be bolder. You’ll be glad you did. Redefine “success” as the freedom to be yourself and prosper. That’s exactly what these women did. Peggy Durbin and Michele Vochosky, Kristina Anderson, President Amy Gillespie
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She had been involved in music since middle school—everything from garage bands to serious classical music. Friends and family often asked, “Hey, Amy! Could you teach me that song?” And each time that happened, the world would stop and she would immerse herself in the moment, working to show them an easier way to play that song. So after too many sleepless nights worrying about budgets and staff issues, law suits, and hitting the current quarter’s revenue targets, she decided it was time to take care of herself, by taking care of others in a way she felt was important.
Peggy and Michele are both technical writers and don’t have any complaints about their jobs. They both like what they’ve been doing and love the Los Alamos community in which they live. But over the years, they’ve often said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like a bed and breakfast or a bookstore?”
Renita Freeman, MA, CCRP, is a freelance writer with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare quality improvement and medical research. She enjoys writing human interest stories, and showcasing people who are making a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others. She also writes a variety of articles that focus on health and safety issues in the medical field.