The Entrepreneurial Spirit and Military Significant Others

It’s graduation season! That means lots of pictures of people in caps in gowns flooding your Facebook and a ton of life advice from commencement speakers.

Fashion designer Tory Burch gave the commencement address at Babson College this year. Tory built her fashion company from the ground up and is now using her success to help other entrepreneurs through her Tory Burch Foundation. Oh and she also makes really cute handbags.

Tory Burch

In keeping with her own experiences, Tory spoke about entrepreneurship. While you may not be an entrepreneur per se, I think that entrepreneurship advice generally applies to all military significant others. With the military lifestyle, you have to forge your own path. You have to be your own best advocate. You have to know how to operate under uncertain circumstances. You have to forge ahead where others may have given up. You have to be tenacious.

Need more proof that military significant others are like entrepreneurs? Let Tory herself define entrepreneurship: “Being an entrepreneur isn’t just a job title, and it isn’t just about starting a company. It’s a state of mind. It’s about seeing connections others can’t, seizing opportunities others won’t, and forging new directions that others haven’t. It’s about being entrepreneurial wherever you are and in whatever you do.”

The rest of Tory Burch’s advice on entrepreneurship and perseverance will certainly apply to military significant others as they try to forge their own career path amidst people who may not believe they can make it happen.

Here are some more great excerpts from her speech, but if you want to read the whole thing, click here:

“If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.

Here is what I’ve learned: We may live in an age of instant messaging, instant gratification, and Instagram, but there is no way to short circuit the path to success. It takes hard work, tenacity and patience.

There are many things you can do overnight. You can write a decent paper. You can put the finishing touches on a runway show…..But there is no such thing as an overnight success.

It’s a myth that glosses over what being an entrepreneur is all about. As Biz Stone, one of the founders of Twitter, put it: “Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of really hard work will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”

The good news is that if you’re willing to pursue your passion, put in the hard work, and believe in yourself, you will succeed.”