10 Years In: The Failures That Built My Creative Business

About this episode

Ekaterina Popova reflects on her ten years of creative entrepreneurship, focusing on the failures that shaped her journey.

Ten years ago, I took the leap into full-time creative entrepreneurship with no roadmap, no guarantee, and a lot of hope. This episode is my honest look back at what actually got me here, and it is not a highlight reel. I recently had the honor of spending two days at Michigan State University as a guest lecturer and juror for the undergraduate senior show. The organizers asked me to speak about failure, not success. That invitation sent me into a real reflection on the moments that broke me open and ultimately built everything I have today. In this episode I share what I wish I had known at 27, including why I stayed too long in projects that had expired, how learning to quit strategically changed everything, why your non-negotiables have to come before your goals, how I learned to stop shrinking under criticism without losing my empathy, the difference between goals that are truly yours versus ones you inherited from someone else's definition of success, and why every significant thing I have built grew directly out of a previous failure. I also talk about losing our first book deal, a solo show that nearly got canceled, the shadow side of stubbornness, and why knowing what…

People in this episode

Host: Ekaterina Popova

Topics covered

• creative entrepreneurship
• failure
• personal growth
• strategic quitting
• self-reflection
• resilience

Keywords

• creative business
• failure
• entrepreneurship
• self-improvement
• personal development
• resilience
• strategic quitting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Michigan State University

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