Lived experience is just as valuable (if not more) as having a degree.

Lived experience does not disappear into thin air.

It collects inside of you like chapters in a book, or books in a series.

And if you’re able, and willing, you can turn that knowledge into a business. And not just into any business, but into a successful business.

And not just into a successful business, but into a sustainable and totally unique business–because no one can be you or have your lived experience and see the world in the way you see it.

As much as I am annoyed with having so much student loan debt from undergrad and grad school (ps I haven’t really used my degrees for their intended purpose–to scale up the corporate ladder in the world of architecture), I’ve managed to make it important in all my work.

I think like an architect.

I know the importance of space.

I can build things on my own or direct others to help me build things.

I know how to plan, even if my anxiety sometimes gets in the way.

I see things from many different angles and perspectives that I would not have had I not studied this for 6 years and then lived with that perspective for the following 13.

I’m lucky to meet all sorts of people–most of them on life and career paths that feel unstable and aimless to them. But what they don’t see is just how much lived experience they have that no one can take away–except them.

I meet photographers who have struggled with body image and have turned that struggle into a thriving business.

I meet refugees who have so much grit that what would scare off many Americans about business doesn’t even enter into their consciousness.

I meet people whose bodies are different but whose minds have reckoned with that and made them into some of the strongest people I know.

I meet women who have lost their mothers who turn their painting into an expression of family and loss and a business that supports them.

I meet yoga instructors who launched their practices after yoga saved their own lives.

None of these people studied business. And sure, they struggle with business–sometimes–until they’re reminded of just how strong and capable and deserving they are.

Then they get right back to it.

There’s no degree that buys us such impactful expertise as our own lived experience.

What’s yours?