Passion + Persistence = Possibility

Well, It's been almost 4 years since I've started this blog, and I am proud to say that at the very least I've consistently kept up with it.

One of my original goals of this blog was to document my journey in the family restaurant business by sharing stories, insights, rants, lessons, and attempts at humor in hopes of showing readers how I too, make a difference in everyday people's lives and in turn how others make an impact on mine. Although my following is small, I've received enough feedback to conclude I am succeeding in this. I will continue to write, as time and patience allows.

My other goal was to use this as an outlet to hone my writing skills, self-reflect, showcase some of my personal beliefs, and build a portfolio to help aid me in pursuing a career in the media. This is something that is still a work in progress, but I have gotten a few steps closer to figuring something out.

I've decided it only makes sense to finally take things into my own hands, and start building my own business. I've known for a long time now that entrepreneurship has been instilled in me from a young girl. I mean, I did grow up working in a family business that was built completely from scratch by a man who had little money and no business skills or education. A business that seemed doomed in the beginning (every previous owner at the location barely made it past 2 years). A business that many people openly expressed their unfavorable opinions about how it was going to fail. A business that made no profit for many years to come. More importantly though, regardless of the obstacles, a business that I watched before my own two eyes succeed anyway. A business that I believe succeeded because of three very important things: passion, persistence, and hard work. I know with these three things anything is possible, I will use this knowledge to do the same with my own ideas.

The reason I haven't started earlier with this is because of my indecisiveness (mixed with a little procrastination lol). I have many hobbies and interests that I am passionate about with a ballpark of ideas circulating throughout my head...all the damn time. Without action though, ideas are of little value. Finally I've been able to narrow things down and form a clearer vision of 2 separate business concepts that I've started to work on. They are as follows:

1) a positive news blog/media site revolving around the state of NJ with a touch of my own personal style; you can follow me on Instagram handle @yourjerseyjo or website yourjerseyjo.com if you wish!

2) a jewelry brand that promotes kindness and gives 25% of profits to charity; this one I do not want to elaborate on until I have an official product, mission statement, and website up and running; but it's based on my passion for fashion and helping people as well

I am purely in an experimental/amateur stage of things right now, so there is nothing to boast or brag about here. However, I want to publicly document in hopes of catching someone's attention that may have valuable feedback or constructive criticism to offer me. Otherwise this will serve as a reminder to keep on trekking on!