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Entrepreneurship of the Self
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Tara AgacayakFollow
Creative & curious problem-solver. Former DoD data specialist w psychology background. Currently exploring data science. Expat.Advertisement
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Entrepreneurship of the Self
- Entrepreneurship of the Self how to create your own place in the world
- Hello World! tweet to me @TaraAgacayak
- the story of a 10-year journey how to find yourself through entrepreneurship
- In the middle of culture clash I disappeared (I got lost)
- I wandered many pathways
- It was a messy process (I was tempted to quit)
- I built my platform
- Dad's advice? - You don’t have to - If you don’t you’ll always wonder - If you do, you can always come home - If you try, give 110%
- 10 Lessons for 10 Years
- 1. Lose yourself (get out of your comfort zone)
- 2. Identify problems (otherwise there’s nothing to solve)
- 3. Ask questions (gives your brain a puzzle to solve)
- 4. Don't believe in yourself (believe in a goal instead)
- 5. Don't listen to outside voices (unless they’re supportive)
- 6. Build a (web) platform (it’s a reflection of you)
- 7. Make self-care a priority (only invest resources in people and things you love)
- 8. Don't wonder (don’t look back and wonder “what if…”)
- 9. Take (safe) risks (give yourself an “out” if it helps you take a step)
- 10. Commit (110%)
- Share your 10-year vision with me www.taraagacayak.com/contact
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for having me, and thank you for being here. Hello to those who are watching online. If you’re tweeting, you can mention me with my Twitter handle @TaraAgacayak (lots of A’s)
- I’m going to tell you the story of a 10-year journey. It’s the story of how I got lost, but then found my way through entrepreneurship. This photograph was taken two days after I moved to Turkey. I just gotten married. I look pretty happy, don’t I? But this picture almost didn’t get taken. Just a month before I was considering cancelling my wedding. I was hopelessly in love, but I didn’t know how I was going to leave my family and move from the United States to Turkey. I was in a complete panic. My dad sat gave me some advice that changed everything. Are you wondering what he told me? I’m going to save his advice for the end of the story. What he told me helped me overcome my panic. I got married, got on a plane and moved to Turkey. Two days later, this photo was taken. And that smile disappeared for the next several years, because the adjustment was extremely difficult. There was the missing of my life and my family and what felt like learning from scratch. Living in two cultures both enriched and confused my life and it was disorienting. Trying to adapt to a new culture while holding onto my old one resulted in me breaking down completely and feeling like I’d lost myself. But I think just like being born with DNA, we’re also born with an innate sense of direction and the tools we need to find our way.
- The process of finding myself involved asking questions like “Who am I? What do I like? What don’t I like? What do I want to do? What don’t I want to do? What makes me happy? What doesn’t?” These questions helped clear the fog so I could start to see the picture of myself. In trying to answer these questions I tried many different ideas and projects. It was trial and error and I kept trying to see what would work in my life and what wouldn’t. What suited my passions and talents and what didn’t. In 2006 I attended a program for global women leaders. The director of the program said that she doesn’t believe in self-confidence, that a better determiner of success is having a well-defined goal and an undying commitment to it. So I worked to come up with a goal I could believe in. Something that was meaningful. Something that I could be completely committed to. The only things I knew were that I needed the freedom and flexibility of working from home, I loved writing, and I loved working with creative people. So I started to explore how I might make that into a job. From the outside, the process looked very messy. It looked like a bunch of failed experiments, of projects gone wrong, of disappointment. But on the inside I knew I was finding my way. I knew I had to eliminate what wasn’t working to find what would.
- The process of finding myself involved asking questions like “Who am I? What do I like? What don’t I like? What do I want to do? What don’t I want to do? What makes me happy? What doesn’t?” These questions helped clear the fog so I could start to see the picture of myself. In trying to answer these questions I tried many different ideas and projects. It was trial and error and I kept trying to see what would work in my life and what wouldn’t. What suited my passions and talents and what didn’t. In 2006 I attended a program for global women leaders. The director of the program said that she doesn’t believe in self-confidence, that a better determiner of success is having a well-defined goal and an undying commitment to it. So I worked to come up with a goal I could believe in. Something that was meaningful. Something that I could be completely committed to. The only things I knew were that I needed the freedom and flexibility of working from home, I loved writing, and I loved working with creative people. So I started to explore how I might make that into a job. From the outside, the process looked very messy. It looked like a bunch of failed experiments, of projects gone wrong, of disappointment. But on the inside I knew I was finding my way. I knew I had to eliminate what wasn’t working to find what would.
- So from the outside I suffered lots of criticism, most of it from the people closest to me who were worried I wasn't making any progress. I was asked lots of questions about why I didn’t just give up, get a regular job, do something less stressful. But I knew that if I didn’t try to find the answers to these questions that I would remain lost and unfulfilled. Those voices tempted me to give up, but I had to block them out if I was going to reach my goal.
- Throughout the process, I was building my online platform. Working online was one of the things that made me visible and gave me the independence I needed. My platform was made up of websites and blogs and tweets and a myriad of other experiments and it reflected the messy process I was going through. It was an external evolution of my internal process. It was changing and growing along with me. The businesses I developed online were the outcome of me trying to find myself and create a life of meaning and fulfillment. But more than developing businesses, I was developing myself.
- You can think of this process is the entrepreneurship of the self - solving the problems in our own lives by asking questions about what’s missing, what’s not working and then dedicating ourselves to solving the problems by transforming our lives regardless of our situations. Actually, Anastasia Ashman came up with a term for it a global niche - the unique place in the world where only you belong - and we believe in it so strongly we built a website and global community around it. The place of meaning and fulfillment that you create for yourself.
- That brings me back to my dad's advice. That night when I was in a panic, when I couldn’t breathe, my dad said that I didn’t have to get married if I didn’t want to. Even though we had spent a lot of money preparing for the wedding he said we could cancel everything and I didn’t have to go through with it. Then he said, But consider this - if you don’t get married and if you don’t go to Turkey, you might always wonder what would have happened if you did. On the other hand, if you do get married and go over there and it doesn’t work out, you can always come home. But if you’re going to do it, you should give 110%. And here I am, 10 years later. Co-founder of a global initiative,
- Lose yourself You don’t know who you are until you figure out who you aren’t. Get out of your comfort zone
- Lose yourself You don’t know who you are until you figure out who you aren’t. Get out of your comfort zone
- Identify problems Frame your situation as a problem to be solved rather than a condition that’s out of your control.
- To solve the problem, ask questions. What do I like? What don’t I like? How can I overcome this problem under these circumstances? What’s possible? Where can I compromise?
- Don’t believe in yourself, but believe in a goal Because there are days when you just don’t have it. You’re sick, or tired, or your kids need you. On those days, as much as you want to, it’s easier to believe in your goal than in yourself.
- Don’t listen to outside voices Take their advice into consideration, but always weigh it against the truth of your own heart.
- Build a platform Your platform is an embodiment of you. It is your testing ground and your launching pad. When it is firmly in place, you can use it to climb higher.
- Make self-care a priority Rest. Eat well. Move. Spend time doing things you love with people you love. You don’t have time for the fluff. And you need the energy and vibrancy to enjoy what you’re creating.
- Don’t wonder Don’t look back and wonder what your life could have been. Choose to walk toward something, anything that feels meaningful. That inborn sense of direction I mentioned - Let your curiosity be the thing that guides you toward it.
- Take calculated risks Entrepreneurs are known for this. My dad helped me lessen my panic by lessening the risk. He gave me a safety net for when it got too difficult.
- Commit Only devote your energy to the things in your life that are worth doing. And if anything is worth doing, dedicate yourself to it completely, with everything you have, and everything you are. If it’s meaningful, the goal will be easy to commit to. And if you’ve commited to it, give 110%. Never quit. Take breaks, recalibrate, find alternative routes, but don’t ever stop working toward your goal.
- I am known for asking thought-provoking questions, so I'm going to leave these with you today. I challenge you to find your own answers to these questions. What do you feel so strongly about that you'll commit to it 110%? What are you willing to do today to take one step toward a goal? What are you willing to do today so that 10 years from now you don't look back and wonder?
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