My name is Amy and I chose the road less traveled.

I’m a dreamer, a gal with a million ideas.  I’m an over-calculating, over-thinking, over-analyzing prisoner of my own mind.  The perfect concoction of crazy.  Feeling misunderstood in the cubical farm that was my daily life, it was New Year’s Day 2014 that I decided to take my destiny into my own hands.

I went rogue.

How did this begin?  As a young gal on a perpetual search to find myself, I realized I was in a place in my life where I was not happy. Not being the type to wallow in my own sadness, I needed to get to the root of the problem.  That problem was work, the four-letter word uttered with a grumbling grimace.  “They don’t call it work for nothing…” I never understood that phrase but somehow I was conditioned to accept it.

Something inside me was desperately trying to get out.  Indignantly, I declared I was done!  I was done sitting at a desk from 9-to-5. It was time for me to stop dreaming and start doing.  

As a transplant from Boston, I had no idea what to expect when I moved here in 2012.  I was blown away by the interesting and innovative people.  It didn’t take long to discover Des Moines was on the tipping point, creating tons of opportunity for entrepreneurs and a perfect time to start a small business.  That’s how Blink Events was born.  I wanted to build a company where we innovated the events world by utilizing new concepts and cool technologies — and I was going to do it.

With that decision to start a business came beautiful clarity.  The sky appeared bluer and the lush spring grass greener than ever.

Sheer excitement mixed with terror and fear.  As a girl who meticulously strategized each life move, this decision was out of my comfort zone.  Fear of failure was the number one concern.  Fear that I wasn’t smart enough, that others were better than me — or the question of where was I even supposed to start!

But I remembered a shirt I saw someone wearing as I reached mile 26 of the 2012 Boston Marathon. It said, “all you can give, is everything you’ve got.”

That mantra propelled me forward, to the finish line I thought I’d never see, and it would push me into building my own business.  Each day I move one step closer to my dream and I realize I am capable of things I never thought possible.

My hope in contributing to Lift IOWA is to share the struggles and victories of being a 30-something woman starting a small business in Iowa.  I want to share my journey in the hope that I can inspire other young women to believe in themselves and follow their dreams.  I want to prove that if I can do it, anyone can. 

CONNECTION POINTS

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn or by phone at 617-840-5073. She also can be reached by email. Learn more about her company at www.blinkevents.net.