Britany Wallace

I attribute my success to persistence - the absolute refusal to take no for an answer. I'm one of those people where, if you watch me, I look like a cartoon character. As many times as I've been beaten and kicked and punched and just dropped, I'm the cartoon character that everyone screams at, 'Stay down, stay down.' But no, I'm not done taking a beating yet. I just keep getting back up. You want what you want, and you're gonna get it whether they beat you down or not. Persistence fits into the challenge category too, because there's a lot of times where you start to feel defeated and hopeless, because you do the things that you're told to do and you never feel like you're getting anywhere. But the people that are where I want to be tell me, 'Keep going. Don't stop. You gotta keep your head up, you gotta keep moving, you're doing everything.' It's just that everything does have to wait. Waiting is terrible - nobody likes waiting because it feels like it's an unanswered prayer, it feels like a locked door. Why do I want to keep banging on a door that's locked? Why don't I go find a door that's open? Because what you're supposed to be doing is behind the locked door, and if you beat on it enough, someone will open it.

Honestly, the best career advice I've received so far has been to stop taking advice from people that haven't achieved what you want to achieve. I've been told that in so many different ways, but it always comes back to this: we let people - our friends and family, even - we let people have a say in how we feel or how we adjust what we're doing to change the outcomes. And the problem is, we're all taking advice from people who haven't done it, can't do it, won't do it. So why are we listening to them? If you want to be a millionaire, start taking advice from millionaires. Stop taking advice from mom. Mom doesn't know. If mom knew how to be a millionaire, she would tell you, but she doesn't know how, so stop listening to her when you tell her you want to be a millionaire and she's like, 'Oh, honey, that's too much, you're biting off more than you can chew.' Stop listening to her. It's not even about people who think you can't do it - here's a good example: when you go to a bank and they tell you what to do with the money that you're putting in the bank, who are they benefiting? It's not you! It's the bank! Stop listening to them about what to do with your money. Start listening to people that have it. Start listening to people that have money, that have the jobs you want, that do the things that you want to do, and you will get there.

The advice I would give them would be to find a mentor. Find one or two people that, even if they're not where you want to be, are truly one or two steps ahead of where you are, because those people are gonna take you with them when they improve. In today's world, you absolutely need that. If you don't have it, you will wander lost for most of your career, and you'll never get anywhere. There are skills that everybody should learn, and if public school really was trying to educate people, they would teach these things, but they're not, so they don't. Things like sales - that is something everyone should have to learn. I feel like that should be part of the curriculum. You should learn how to deal with any kind of people. You should have to work inside of a retail counter, you should have to be a waitress or a waiter or a hostess and see all of the different kinds of people that you get to meet and deal with those different personalities, so that you can get a more diverse understanding of the kind of people that are out in the world.

In finance, there's a lot of opportunities with the company I work under now as a 1099 contractor. There's a lot of opportunities for education that's either reimbursed or covered, because they want people to have the information. Of course, you still have to study, you still have to learn it and pass the tests and everything, but there's a growth opportunity there that not every company opens the doors for. A lot of companies will tell you you have to come in with those things already. There's definitely a lot of growth opportunity in terms of learning actual experiences that are important. I feel like there are skills that everybody should learn, and if public school really was trying to educate people, they would teach these things. Things like sales - that is something everyone should have to learn. You should learn how to deal with any kind of people, work in retail, be a waitress or waiter or hostess, and see all of the different kinds of people that you get to meet and deal with those different personalities so that you can get a more diverse understanding of the kind of people that are out in the world.

Transparency, honesty, and consent are the values most important to me. A lot of people take consent to be a sexually derived term, and it can be, it does have a space in that realm, but it should really apply to everything else too. Like, when you go to a job interview, for example, don't just let them interview you - you interview them! You want to know who you're working for, and if you're gonna feel like you're a good part of that team, a desired part of that team. That should absolutely be a consent-based exchange. So having full disclosure and consent across the board in everything that you do is really an important facet.