Many entrepreneurs are wooed into owning their own business and working for themselves because of the flexibility and freedom they anticipate going along with that. But, being an entrepreneur does not always mean being able to set your own hours, or being able to be home when you want to, or taking vacations at a moment’s notice. As Ray has come to learn, being an entrepreneur can still mean long hours at the hands of others. But for her, it is work well worth it.
“When you’re trying to balance everything, you just have to be flexible,” says Ray. “So you can’t have dinner until around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. If that’s what it is, that’s what it is. You can’t have it all without sacrificing quite a bit. You can’t be too rigid with things like what time you’ll have dinner or when you’ll take vacation.”
Part of being a successful entrepreneur for Ray, has meant learning to think on her feet and adapting to change when necessary. Not everything Ray has ever done has been her dream job, but as she says, “You have to be open-minded when those early opportunities present themselves. Take advantage of them whether they’re going to make you a lot of money or not.”
Even today, now that Ray is living her dream, she finds she still needs to hold on to that sense of controlled flexibility, since nothing ever seems to go as planned. “I don’t have a typical day anymore,” she says. “Taping the [daily talk] show is different from ’30-Minute Meals.’ And if I’m writing for my magazine, then I spend all day at the computer with my dog at my feet. I work a long day because it feels good to me, and I do that no matter what my job is.”
Hosting several top-rated television cooking shows and a daytime talk show, running a magazine, and writing best-selling cookbooks takes a huge amount of time. Ray never knows when her schedule is going to change, or which city she will be in from one week to the next. Especially during the busy holiday seasons, Ray is constantly on the move. Usually she will be promoting a new cookbook and be on a book tour for most of December, traveling to a different city each day. But what Ray does know is that she can handle that change.
Ray’s life and success thus far might have been a self-proclaimed “accident,” but it was only by being open to those unexpected opportunities and changes in her life that allowed her to come this far. Having goals is a good thing, but like Ray found, being too focused can be actually be a detriment. If she had been so focused on a destination point, she never would have opened herself up to the myriad of opportunities that presented themselves along the way. It might not have always been a path she wanted for herself, but with her sacrifices came her great success.
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