Women in Business outstanding

From Passion to Profit

Gurus of inspiration continue to offer sage advice, but finding satisfaction in work still takes creativity and a talent for looking at the workday through a lens of curiosity and enthusiasm. One important key is to identify what motivates you.

Example: One person may want to be a rock star because she’s attracted to the life style, while another has an arsenal of songs and a talent for singing them.

Both are equally valid reasons. If it’s the lifestyle, do you need to be a rock star, or would you rather book tours? If it’s singing, are you willing to quit college and live in a cheap apartment for a year (rent subsidized by parent) and work long and hard to be discovered? That’s how Lady Gaga paid her dues.

Not everyone has family help (or a father to pay the rent for a year, like Lady Gaga) but many women are surprised to learn, when they dig into their own resources, that they can identify away forward where they didn’t know it was possible. In her book Wishcraft, Barbara Sher says if you identify a goal, get all your friends together for a brain storming session to help you with ideas to overcome the obstacles.

If rock and roll doesn’t excite you, how about lasers?

For Dr. Lynne Roberts, it all started with an interest in pediatric birthmarks. Until the early days of laser surgery, there was no treatment for birthmarks. “Once I was able to offer a laser treatment for removal of birthmarks, that really sparked my interest in the laser field.”

As use and capability of lasers expanded in skin treatment, Dr. Roberts’s fascination expanded as well. “Now I don’t do any medical dermatology, I do all laser and cosmetic,” she says. I have seven lasers in the office. Lasers R Us,” she says, with pride. With today’s lasers Dr. Roberts has expanded from removal of birthmarks to pixel fractional resurfacing, treatment of fine lines, sun damage, and even tattoo removal.

Vicki White, who flipped 21 houses before she became a Realtor, noticed she had a talent for staging houses in a way