When I first started my photography business – I had just graduated from college and got a full-time job in marketing and doing photography for a real estate company.   My husband was in grad school full-time working hard, so my job was the main income we had coming in that year as Agustin was finishing school.  As my own photography business was gearing up, I wanted to make a plan for the next year.  This was my plan:  stay at my job during the off-season (aka VERY slow season for a budding photographer), work hard all winter at both my job and my photography business, save up and then when summer hit I would leave my job and fulfill me dream as { CUE FIREWORKS } a FULL TIME PHOTOGRAPHER!!!   DING DING DING!!

Then life threw a wrench in my plan – I was laid off.   This was 8 months too early..

The next steps were crucial! 

And winter was the slow season. Do I get a job for 8 months? How can I support my husband and I while he finishes his last year of grad school when we are both unemployed?  Or do I bite the bullet and pour everything into my business and MAKE it work?  

After applying for two jobs and getting down to the final two (twice!) but not getting it – I had to make a tough choice. Part of me felt like I hit a roadblock and I was supposed to just get a full-time job to support my family – but something inside me told me that wasn’t the direction I was meant to go.

So I mustered up my courage and with peace that went beyond my understanding… started Kelly Lemon Photography.  Agustin was working hard in grad school and looking for a job for our first year of marriage – so I HUSTLED HARD – to buildup my business during the slowest months of the year, and with hard work, passion, and drive – we made it through!! God provided new inquiries and the energy to push hard and we made it through on the income of my new little business!! 

Now I am not saying – that following a plan, gradually building a business alongside your job is not a good decision – it is a great thing!  

But for those that keep dreaming of pursuing their passion, but for whatever reason…keep putting it off… I have some words for you :)

 I want to share what I read in Bob Goff’s  Love Does – something that I wish I was told back in 2012.

“I once heard somebody say that God had closed a door on an opportunity they had hope for. But I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can come in.”

I really connected with these words – because as an entrepreneur – it can be scary.  We are chasing dreams and our passions and turning them into businesses that support our families…but so often we give up too early. We give us when doors close, and interpret those events as God closing a door.  When just as Bob Goff says – sometimes God wants us to know how bad we want it and to kick the door down.

So if you have something on your heart that you are passionate about and you know it is good and will serve people well and it lights you up inside – there is a good chance God placed that desire in you! So pull up your boots…and go get ’em tiger!