“The important thing is getting up, dusting yourself off and learning from failures” — Dana Michels.
Dana Michels and I first met when we had kindergarteners in the same homeroom almost a decade ago; we have remained close friends ever since. One thing that makes Dana particularly astute in her ability to give advice and share her wisdom is her training as a lawyer. Dana has a unique ability to guide you through problems with critical thinking and highly developed logical and analytical skills. She can easily identify the problem(s) in your situation and offers advice on solutions to achieve the best practical outcome. Having Dana as a friend means you have an incredible advocate standing next to you and helping guide you along the best path forward. She is not only incredibly smart, but also an empath with amazing interpersonal skills which allow her to relate to people with a highly attuned sense of understanding. As you can imagine, Violet and I often turn to Dana for advice and wisdom, so we are thrilled to share her thoughts here.
Is there one piece of advice that you wish your 9 year old self would give you today that would make an impact on your career?
I would tell my 9 year old self to start looking at the jobs people do and think about what looks interesting to me. I’d ask lots of questions so I knew what was possible and started thinking about what is right for me.
Was there a time you messed up and felt like you’d failed? how did you bounce back?
This is going to happen a lot! The important thing is getting up, dusting yourself off and learning from it — while not thinking about your mistake too much and feeling bad about it.
How did you learn to embrace risk-taking?
I think in order to embrace risk taking you need to know that it is ok not to succeed. It is ok to try and fail. If you haven’t ever failed at something then you haven’t ever tried anything new. I think it’s essential to take risks — some won’t work out and that’s fine — the important thing is to have a plan if it doesn’t work out and know that everything will be ok.
What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned and how has it proven invaluable?
I think it’s important that my colleagues trust me — that they know I mean what I say and will do what I say I’ll do — and that I am there to help and support them.
What is the most fun part of your job?
The most fun part of my job is that I am challenged everyday. Each day brings a new problem for me to solve and new challenges to work on. It is very fun and interesting to get to solve problems each day.
About Amy Powell:
Amy Powell is a recognized industry leader and pioneer in the next generation of digital marketing & content creation. As an entrepreneur and founder of multiple digital, film and television companies, her expertise spans across digital marketing, story-telling, brand-building, content creation and business intelligence.
You can reach her on her website, Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram.
