Tara Armstrong

I really attribute my success to choosing to value how I want to see my life versus just following a traditional path. Choosing to spend time with my kids and my husband has really helped me figure out and be creative about my job. There have also been some women who've really given me the opportunity to succeed and create things that I never thought I would be able to create, or create programs or systems that I never thought I would be able to create, so definitely mentorship has played a huge role. It's almost like negative punishment in a way, but not wanting to work a 9-to-5 job has really helped me carve out this whole career for myself, and it's worked out well. There have been certain opportunities given to me by different people in different places that they needed to solve a problem, and they gave me the opportunity to solve it, and I'm forever grateful for that.

I always say to the students still in high school, make sure you take classes that can help you establish your own business. As an entrepreneur, that was the hardest part of what I had to do, was learning how to do billing and learning how to write contracts. But I think it's really important that everyone have a niche skill, so then that way they're always able to support themselves and have options in their career.

I think trustworthiness is really important - saying what you're going to do is what you're going to do. I think, as I get older, generosity of spirit is crucial, like giving people the grace to make a mistake and the time to repair it and fix it. Patience is a good value. They've changed as I've gotten older, it's funny. When I take time off, I really take time off, in the sense that I don't spend any of my leisure time doing this kind of work. I have research time, I have work time, and then I have playtime. When I consider playtime, it's time spent with my family, my pet, going on the lake, kayaking, things that are incredibly separate to really help delineate mentally where my mind is at.