Mar Della Greca

I've been through a lot and haven't had a regular path - I had to work while studying to pay for my degree, and I raised my daughter alone until three years ago when I got married and moved to the U.S. She's almost thirteen now, so it's been a long road. I started my business totally from zero, with no capital, no mattress, nothing - just a slow start because I couldn't deploy capital like others can. I think that sort of fight is what has made me what I am now.

My best quality is that I'm like a bull - I push and push through anything. It doesn't matter the amount of pressure, I just go and deal with it. Going through situations where you just have to do it, period, removes a lot of fears and doubts. I've left behind fears like 'I can't,' 'I'm not enough,' 'I don't know this' - I just jump off the cliff and learn how to fly while I'm falling.

I don't think I would have had the guts to get in the tables that I'm in or to talk to certain people if I hadn't left all those fears behind. God's ways are mysterious. Now I just do it, and if it works, great. If it doesn't, then I'll try again when I've learned whatever made me fail this time. People who work with me know that my only answer is "Roger".

That fight, that persistence, God willing, is what has taken me to the point where I am now.

No one has ever given me advice when I was lost. No one turned around to say "hey kid, this way."

Now, I make my own path and I listen carefully to the people who know more than me.

I will say two things though.

My husband always says: "There are people who play business, and people who do business." Meaning A LOT of people out there just pretend to be in projects and "be important", and they waste your time every-single-time. You need to learn how to discern them early in your journey.

And my avi (grandfather) used to say "If you're talking, you're not working." And I remember that every time (which is... always), that I see people caught up on these debates or arguments about "how to" do the work or how to be a good leader or why the apocalypse of the industry/AI is coming. But do you know what I think to myself? If you're here investing your time in debating in a comments section, you're not actually working.

I'm too old school for a lot of people, but honestly, I don't care.

The first thing I would say is that wherever you start, you're not going to stay there. Don't take too seriously the point where you're starting, because you don't know yourself yet. I don't think you know yourself until you have gone through a lot and you have had to go against the tides. So get to know yourself first.

I would say put yourself in as many uncomfortable situations as you can, so you raise your bar of boldness, so when the true difficult situations arise, you don't flinch and you can actually withstand the storm. Become strong before God has to. Because girl, His ways are ruthless but effective and he trains you for war.

The last thing I would say is that there's nothing you cannot do if you put your mind to it. The only thing separating you from your desired position is a lack of information - you don't know what you have to know yet, and you don't have the connections that you need yet. So get to know yourself, and once you do, go for it, and don't stop, because someone who gets up every time that it's knocked down is unstoppable. The only way to attract warriors is to become one. Don't judge people for what they say to you, but observe their journey and how many scars they have collected.

Old dogs make the best allies. Stick to your standards and they will appear in time. And don't fall for stupid ideologies. There are bad people in both genders, don't look at what they are, look at what they do.

You can still swing back from the ground - the fact that something happens doesn't mean that you cannot get back up. Just learn the lesson and keep going.

I think the same, as old as time. I don't believe in all these "the industry is dying!: apocalypse speeches. Look, if you zoom out during history, it's always the same fluctuation:

1. Society has a big need (given technology/science wasn't still at that level or there's a societal scenario like post-war/trend/discovery)
2. Businesses/industry starts growing and making profit.
3. Someone discovers something even better or that makes things easier. Makes a lot of money.
4. Everyone freaks out and predicts the end of the world. Period where people lose money.
5. The law intervenes and adapts to limit the capacity of that entity.
6. When they chill out, they understand how to adapt to it and shift their own path around it. Profit shares among everyone instead of this one entity.
7. Everyone has a stable path again.
8. Someone discovers something better...

And there we go again. Challenges and opportunities? All over the place, it all comes down to your mindset. Are you an apocalyptic preacher or are you a hands-on bull that will take minimum time to adapt and evolve? Up to you.

To me, the highest value would be to keep my word. If you say you're going to do something, you do it. I keep a circle of people that do the same.

I think that people who live up to that have a lot of standards behind that.

First, you never say you're going to do something you won't, because then you'll be bound to that. And there's honesty in that.

I have very high standards for myself - I'm very demanding with myself, and I like people I work with to be able to do the same and be reliable. I've been struggling with finding reliable people - people who just don't show up, or don't appear, or they say they're going to do work and they just don't.

I don't know if I'm too old school, but I like people who keep their word and people who have ethics. I don't work for certain people because I don't like certain things, and sometimes that has cost me some partnerships, because at some point they do something that I don't consider ethical, and I just back up. I don't want to be associated with this. That would be the one value that sums it all up.