Do Leave Home Without It
I have read zero books on entrepreneurship.
Maybe I should have before I started down this path, though I doubt it would have prepared me for learning what I now see as essential, not just for success, but also for survival: leaving home without a map.
Most of my life I knew I wanted to change the world with words, but I didn’t appreciate until I was a little older that writing requires a serious practice. Writing is something you do. A writer is something you become.
I felt emboldened by the time I got to law school, where language was reinforced with rules and authority. I started to write more—stories, legal memos, grant proposals. I co-founded a student-run project to bring legal services to newly-arrived Latino immigrants in Baltimore City and this taught me how to turn words into something real.
From then on, I got better at making things happen: court cases, a literary journal, writers’ retreats in Mexico, galas and gatherings. It all prepared me for the rough and unpredictable terrain of running a small food business.
Reading the books may or may not have oriented me on the journey. But I’m the type to toss out instructions, preferring instead to navigate with intuition and creative energy. And the writing is the thread that runs through it all, grounding me and illuminating the way ahead.
Even so, I allow for the possibility that this has made my entrepreneurial ride a little bumpier than it needed to be. When I’m lost, it takes me longer to find my way back, and some forks in the road have turned into real dead ends. I’ve spent money on the wrong equipment, too-expensive butter, silly chef shoes I didn’t need. I’ve poured time and effort into farmer’s markets and other events that cost me more than the revenue I brought in. And I’ve pivoted, sometimes in the opposite direction of where I needed to go.
But I’d rather dream out the window than read the safety instructions in the seat pocket in front of me.
And I’m still making pies, building community, figuring it out as I go along.
So should you.
For more writing, find me at The Quiet Kitchen on Substack.