To be extraordinary, you put yourself where no one has been. You define imagination and along the way you encounter change. Believe my words, change brings connection. Change affects where we live, our work, who we meet and how we reacquaint with our self. In the midst of change, we recreate who we are.
Being complacent is nothing short of getting stuck, being unaware and resisting newness, whereas change moves you in a new direction.
Intuition peered through a small window of imagination. From childhood to adolescence and then young adulthood, wondering and discovery was natural. I was introduced to change early in life, traveling a path unknown became my norm. From the time I was young, my parents evolved through their lives, separating during my childhood, and as a young adult they divorced. It was change that kept me on my toes, being aware of each moment, watching with wonder. It wasn’t always comfortable but I accepted it and learned that change happens for reasons beyond our own imagination.
In those early years, I grew up along the countryside of upstate New York. Our home, situated on acreage, had no defining lines on either side or across for miles. My childhood was spent involuntarily exploring the beauty of nature, from seasonal changes of white snow-covered trees to embellished fields of spring blossoms. Influenced by the delicate sounds of streams, deep colors of lilacs, snowball floral blooms and wild blackberries, it was nature that changed the way I perceive. Each season became a vision, each vision a memory and although I didn’t know then how it would impact my life, the curiosity and wonder inspired me decades later in ways I never imagined.
I lived most of my pre-Houston years in Westchester County and commuted to Wall Street. Leaving the countryside of upstate New York, I started my career in the World Trade Center, taking the train daily into Grand Central, admiring architecture along the way. My job was like no other, being one of a handful of women, working on the Exchange gave me unparalleled experience, the likes of an exclusive degree from an ivy league but real experience from individuals who most only hear about. I stood shoulder to shoulder with traders, leaning into the pit, “Buy 100 Dec.”
Two phones to each ear, waiting for my orders to be filled, millions of dollars. flowed through my hands. This was Wall Street and I was a part of every moment as the price of oil was established.
It was in this role that I learned to articulate the market, conversing with client on WTI prices changes. What caused them and the effect it would have on our economy. It was change that I became accustomed with, explaining it to clients, describing what it meant, understanding the cause it created. This was my job and change was the biggest part of it.
My dad, an avid commodity investor taught me how much he loved markets and as a little girl, I had visions working at the place he often described. Brokering energy commodities, heating oil, gas and crude oil became as personal to me as the palm of my hand. My career was huge, yet as small as I seemed, I never doubted where I would go. I always faced change with challenge and an openness to succeed.
By mid 1990’s, Houston became home to me. I moved from Manhattan to Houston not once, but three times for work, uprooting my path, facing change only to further my career. At the end of my 30’s I retired from energy derivatives, being the first female broker starting an OTC electricity desk when the electric industry deregulated. The challenge I accepted then paved the way for what would become a path for other women. My decision to leave the industry was not a career shift but a vision I had of myself in a much bigger place. There was doubt and at times scary but I followed my intuition and I always took the direction of risk and change. By 2002 my company was formed. In my late 30’s, I started my first business, a design company was born.
When we allow change, it evolve us, moves us, and sometimes awakens us to our best potential. It’s in change that we discover something new about ourselves, a silent awareness that shifts us in a new direction, intuition guiding us. It’s not the easiest path and often the most risky, but you learn to become acquainted with newness because nothing ever stays the same, no market, job or life.
It was Sept 7th of 2001, I went back to visit my old work place, Wall Street and the World Trade Center. A friend, who worked for Cantor, asked me to visit and attend the US Open over the long weekend. I returned to Houston the eve of September 10th, I said my good-byes, not knowing I would never see him again, that the following day would be a memorial, changing everyone’s lives, forever.
In those moments of devastation and despair, room is made for doors to open. Change happens and sometimes it’s beyond our own imagination. It is then that we are forced to allow change to create newness in ourselves.
In my upcoming book, Real Estate Etiquette, I speak extensively about navigating through situations, how change can clear our perspective. When we pay attention, we are immovable. Every experience becomes our reality, we face change, doors open in unimaginable ways. We make new decisions with a fresh perspective. It’s not change that challenges us, it’s how we respond to the challenge.
In becoming accustomed to change, I found myself looking for ways to make changes. Now I encompass change in almost everything I do, including my work, which is meant to inspire and create change for others. When things become stale, I create change. I use the inspiration of nature to create beautiful interiors, designs and art, This is awareness and it is through awareness that we find change, creativity and wonder.