stella egbelana

I think it's having immigrant parents who are really, you know, the immigrant hustle. Nothing is given to you, you just have to work for it. And just being prayerful, my religion, praying, having good friends and a support system. I just feel like not being able to take no for an answer. I think sometimes I have to consistently remind myself, because sometimes it's easy to feel defeated, especially now when there's limited job opportunities and limited opportunities. Sometimes you feel like you're putting so much effort in stuff and it's not working out, but I just feel like the people who make the differences in life are the ones that continue going. Even when people share their journey, they don't really focus on all the challenges as much, it's mainly people focus on their success. But when you actually look at how long it took people to get to where they get to, how many trials and errors, then you're like, okay, you know what, you just have to be really resilient. If it doesn't work out, give yourself a day, cry, do whatever you need to do, and then just pick up the pieces tomorrow.

I think one of it is, just because someone says no, take it as a lesson, and so it doesn't mean you should stop, it just means you need to try harder. I feel like sometimes when you try something and it didn't work out, it's so easy to be like, okay, maybe it's not for me. But no, even if you look at people who are successful today, they've had many doors slammed in their face, and the difference is they were resilient enough to keep trying, rather than just giving up. I have to consistently remind myself of this, because sometimes it's easy to feel defeated. You know, the people who make the differences in life are the ones that continue going.

I would just say, if you want to do it, you can do it, and don't let outside noise distract you. I remember when I decided to transition from social work, everyone told me you can't go from being a social worker to being someone in finance. I've had people who had backgrounds more aligned to get these roles because of their background, but obviously, if you're coming from a different background, you have a unique perspective that actually might support them better than someone who has that traditional background. So just don't be afraid to go for what you want, and if other people say that, oh, I don't think you can do it, then they shouldn't really be around you anyway.

I think that one of the biggest challenges is funding. A lot of people, their funding got cut, or there's a deficit in terms of the state budget at the moment. I think a lot of it has to do with the state budget, because the federal budgets got cut, so a lot of projects that the state has to cover, certain things that the feds would have covered previously. So they're just trying to find ways to save money, basically. It's trying to make big changes with minimal resources, and I think that's the biggest challenge in both of them. Even with all these startups we support, there's not as much funding or grants, and a lot of the people we work with, they would have had funding, and all of a sudden, one day they woke up and the funding was gone. So it's trying to see how to provide the level of support with limited resources. One way we're trying to approach this is with the Community Finance Academy. They're trying to teach businesses and communities how to make money through crowdfunding. So that's one of the initiatives we're focusing on at the moment, trying to use crowdfunding as a source for people to become more independent, and for communities to take back control.

I think the values that are most important to me are integrity, accountability, and honesty. And just having a really good support system. It's important to remain positive in all things, not be negative, or not dwell in negative thoughts. I'm really ambitious, and I like being around ambitious people. I like being around people who are doing what I want to do, or doing better. It's really inspiring, especially to see women do stuff that 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, people would say you wouldn't see women in those positions. Like, even the other day, I was at a conference, and I met a female, a black female aerospace engineer who worked for NASA for 16 years, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. I feel like it's so interesting to put yourself in spaces that may not even be something you're interested in, but you could always learn. I like learning new things, going to conferences or networking events in different industries just to find out what's going on. I like seeing what's going on, what entrepreneurs are thinking about, what type of business ideas, what type of pain problems people are having, and thinking of unique ways to solve them.