By Rebekah Jacob 

Published on the blog of Skirt! Charleston 

Passion and courage fuel the creative entrepreneur to move forward, innovate, and take risks that others wouldn’t dare. Passion and courage fuel us to believe in ourselves to do our best as our lives unfold. As Albert Camus wrote, “Life is a sum of all your choices. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.”

Passion is energy, an emotion that must be channeled and there is no better time to hone that energy than now. In my own life and profession, sure a top-notch curator/dealer requires academic training, apprenticeships, travel, and a hard-drive of information and images; but most of all, I need the ever-burning passion and boldness to be in the game, no matter what.  Because in the freedom fight, more times than not, you get your ass kicked.

I also think of passion in regard to establishingand developing the RJG brand, a living organism. With full hearts and intense focus, everything we have tried to do is steeped in quality, ethics, humanity, and artistry. I hope that the brand’s touchstones and the source of our pride are respect, dignity, compassion, community, responsibility and authenticity. No matter what I have always been proud of the passion that our artists and our staff have spurred in their hearts, while venturing along this never ending, sometimes unpredictable, journey that honors the past while reinventing the future.

In life and our careers, there are moments when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, common sense, and the wise counsel of people we trust. Despite all risk and rational argument, we search deep, lean forward, and believe–no matter what–that we are choosing the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we don’t know exactly where our actions will lead or if we have the skill-sets to follow them through. We become innately intuitive, holding our own counsel and putting one foot in front of the other, determined to scale the intimating mountain to reach the summit.

I  also think of boldness in regard to the innovation and creativity of  our brand, particularly through technology.  In my own business, innovation is about rethinking the nature of a brand and also its relationships, not just about retaining products. RJG has strived to build our technology so that  we receive a lot of traction from established and  new online social networks.  In our journey into the virtual world, we have worked hard to get on the front end and better understand / capitalize on the power of the web at large. Having learned from both established and new clients, our website  has evolved into more than a one-way suggestion box;  it can  has become a genuine opportunity to connect–and buy. There is no doubt that in a creative business, an online social media presence, versatile web based platform, and online marketplace cannot be discounted.

When runningmy own gig, mediocrity will not do. I have put in 10,000 hours and I am ready to put in 10,000 more.  Iam busy every hour of every day, ushering in deals, launching new projects, realigning staff, solving problems.  It can be overwhelming.  There is no time to waste, and I am often running gains against the clock. Running your own gig is a balancing act by which we will survive our crucible and thrive behind it, with heads held high but feet firmly planted in reality. Ladies, thisdelicate balance of passion, boldness, and innovation is key, as this is how we win. #Onward