Sophia Rowe

I attribute everything to my mom. She's always pushing and making sure that we work as hard as we can to the best way we know how, even if things don't turn out the way we want. She is a true leader to me. She had the most businesses growing up - we grew up in a restaurant, and now she has apartments that she's doing, but she's never went to college. She never went to high school, and she's running her business like a rock star. That's the person who I really mirror - my mother.

I remember my professor when I was doing my master's always told me to do what I'm good at, do what makes me happy, and do something that I'm passionate about. Those are the three things that were always with me. Do what's best. Do what I'm good at. Whatever I do, make sure somebody else is going to benefit from it - it's just not for me. So I'm always mindful of that.

It's not easy, but it's doable. As long as you have the passion, as long as you have the love for it, you can do it. Once you find your area, your audience, who you want to work with, make sure it's something that you love. It won't be easy, but once you love it, you will always find the drive. You will always be motivated to keep pushing. If you're coming into this industry thinking it's gonna be easy and it's to make money, it's not gonna be something for you. You have to love it. You have to love to serve. Service is very important.

If you don't have someone to help you, if you don't have a team to help, you will miss out on a lot of things. Collaboration and partnership is key. You have to collaborate and partner with persons who have gone this route before you. What I mean is you want to partner with larger foundations who have access to a lot more things that you would need. So you partner with them, so you gain credibility and also visibility in reaching your goals. That's the best advice I have - partner with other persons who have done it before you, so that they will help to train you along the way as you go.

Being my true self is most important to me. In this work, you can't pretend, because the young ladies who I'm working with need to see me at my best, but really being my true self. They're looking to me for everything - for leadership, for counseling, for mentoring, they're looking for everything. These ladies don't have anyone to tell them, so I have to show them how to be responsible, how to be accountable. So being myself is something that I will always value. I have to teach them and show them, so being authentic is the way to go.