20 years ago in a city by the bay…

20 years ago I landed in San Francisco from Hawaii with $500 in my bank account and a vision to create a new life of opportunity in a vibrant city.

It was 1999 during the dot com 1.0 and everyone told me they were handing out jobs to anyone with a college degree, even if it was a Masters in Music.

25 yo me was on a quest to find a coveted ‘tech’ job even though I barely knew how to send an attachment in an email. I found a headhunter that kept sending me to boring admin jobs at non tech firms and I kept turning them down.

25 yo me had the vision to not just take any job. I reminded the headhunter I hired that I wanted a ‘tech job’ and as the universe heard my call, a hiring manager at a tech company noticed the elite conservatory I attended as he once was an aspiring musician. They brought me in for an interview, I won them over with my sparkly personality and landed the job that would eventually develop my web design and instructional design skills.

If you had told Leslie circa 1999 that in 20 years she would have built her own business, get married, start a family and own a home in San Francisco all while still being a professional musician she would have said “heck, yes!”

25 yo Leslie had so much wisdom in her lust for adventure and the unending optimism.

25 yo Leslie had a clarity of vision.

25 yo Leslie had courage to journey into the unknown and forge her own path.

25 yo Leslie is still inside me, although I may have to remind 45 yo Leslie of that fact! It hasn’t all been easy peasy, in fact, most of it was hard work, perseverance, and the ability to continuously evolve from learning opportunities, aka failures.

I’m grateful to San Francisco for a great 20 years of opportunities and adventures.

Looking forward to continuing on this evolution of expansion and growth by sharing and connecting others with the lessons I’ve learned.

Where were you 20 years ago? Would your younger self be happy?

Where will you be 20 years from now? Are you setting yourself up to look back fondly to today?