Every weekend my husband don's a pirate costume and calls me Captain. He's my favorite Pirate. I'm so blessed to be sailing life's sometimes stormy seas with him.
In Spring of 2021 I was floundering and suffering from depression. We found out my husband was battling kidney failure in addition to his life long struggle with heart disease. I realized that if something happened to him I was not equipped to financially take care of our family. So I attempted to get a job and start learning. Of the 15 resumes I first sent out, I only got 1 job interview which went nowhere. Who wants to hire a 50 something year old grandma when you are surrounded by young college age workers, with 2-3 years work experience. All my decades of school and community service counted for nothing. In the past 32 years of being a stay-at-home mother. I'd had only 1 job and it lasted 6 months before we had to move to Utah. I got really depressed. Then both my husband and I were inspired that I go back to school. So that fall I enrolled in BYU Pathway Worldwide. That was a scary first step. In July of this year I graduated Pathways and enrolled online at BYU Idaho through the Pathway Program so that I could finish my college education. I'm working towards a Bachelors Degree in Applied Business Management. At the same time I went back to school I also started training with my self-taught, leather-crafting son. I found that my decades of crafting helped me naturally pick up leather working and so I joined a couple of my children selling leather goods and gaming supplies at Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove on Weekends. Our little 10x10 pop up and turned into a full-time business and we just signed a lease to open our own store this fall. It's been a whirlwind of a past year.
One of the certificates I'm taking to earn my Bachelor's is 'Intro to Entrepreneurship' and one of its purposes is to start my business journey with the end in mind. I'm my own Start-Up Business Captian. I'm beyond thrilled and terrified to be starting my own store with my family and at the same time learning how to start a business through my college classes. In the past year I learned two different languages. The language of Excel (taught on a PC) which I then had to translate to the language of Excel used on a Mac computer. Yes, this old sea dog can learn new tricks. As I was learning how to use Excel, I was turning around and making spreadsheets to track my inventory and sales.
This week in class we learned about the 'Entrepreneurial Hero,' taught in an article by Jeff Sandefer. Jeff taught that...
"Four of the hardest challenges will be personal, because you'll have to
* Accept that life is hard and seldom fair. (We lost our first lease on the store to a national chain after we had signed the lease and paid first months rent.)
* Know that you must persevere to develop the habits and character that will determine your destiny.
* Understand that choosing doesn't mean you are in control, and that real entrepreneurs learn to fail quickly, cheaply, and often. (We learn something every time we have an event, Even if we don't do well, we learn which events to cater to, how set-up and layout are important and how to engage with customers. We always learn something.)
* Find the right fellow travelers, because you will tend to become like those who surround you. " (In our business we've met two kinds of fellow travelers - those who steal your ideas and copy them then try to push you down so they can go up and those who support you and give you info and help in reaching your goals and dreams. We strive to be like the goal reachers and try to help others with tips or supplier info, that have worked for us.)
What an incredible experience the last year has been. I'm trying to get my business sea legs under me. I'm still a little wobbly, but I'm confident I can learn. And I've got the best first mate ever. Like I said before, I sell my leather goods at a fantasy emersion park in Pleasant Grove, Utah called 'Evermore.' People go dressed in their favorite cosplay, medieval character and go on quests, ride a train, do archery and more.
As vendors there, we also dress up, hence my husband turning into a pirate and calling me Captain. If you ever go through that fantasy portal come find our family. We offer free leather crafts and my first mate will teach you how to play a rousing game of Liar's Dice at our 'We GEEK Together' Merchant Tent.
I hope this educational/business adventure leads to something amazing. This semester of college I'll be taking you along with some of my little Captain Entrepreneurial Business Quests. Wish me luck.
-Captain FaeFae (my grandma name) Fawn Ashby
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