I spent more than 25 years building a technology consulting company. I grew it, worked with companies around the world, made the Inc. 5000 list three times and eventually sold it.
Then I did something that made absolutely no sense on paper. I started a tequila company and just like that, I was a beginner again.
I had to learn an entirely new industry: tequila production, importing, distribution, retail, packaging, compliance and about a hundred other things I didn’t even know I didn’t know.
But here’s what I discovered:
Starting something new doesn’t mean starting from zero.
Everything I had learned over the years came with me. I knew how to solve problems. I knew how to negotiate. I knew how to build relationships. I knew how to pick myself up after hearing “no.” And I knew that when I didn’t know something, I could learn it.
That lesson applies whether you’re starting a company, returning to the workforce, changing careers, interviewing for a job after years away, or simply trying to figure out what comes next. I think we women have a tendency to look at a job description or a new opportunity and focus on what we haven’t done. I think we should spend a lot more time looking at everything we have done.
Maybe you managed a household while raising children. You learned how to manage competing priorities, budgets, personalities and crises. Maybe you’ve worked in one industry for 20 years and want to enter another. You aren’t leaving those 20 years behind. You’re bringing 20 years of judgment, experience and resilience with you.
When I created BIATCH® Tequila, I didn’t know the spirits business. But I knew business. And I knew women. So I became a student again.
Today, BIATCH® is sold across the country, and I’m still learning something new almost every day.
Being a beginner isn’t a weakness.
It means you’re growing.
So when the next opportunity comes along and that little voice says, I’ve never done this before, try answering it differently:
Not yet.
You don’t have to start over when you reinvent yourself.
You get to bring everything you’ve already learned with you.
Sue Hrib, known as “Aunt Sue,” is a serial entrepreneur, investor and Founder & CEO of BIATCH® Tequila, a women-first tequila brand built to celebrate Fierce and Unapologetic™ women.
