As a child, driving from Ventnor Beach back home to Galloway, I’d pass this old run down pink office building on the side of the Pike. It had a real estate sign in the front for years before they tore it down. I didn’t know much about what I wanted, but I knew I wanted that building.
It was a great location and it was PINK. I’d have my own pink office and I’d be close to the beach! I could also see the brick apartments over the Albany Ave Bridge, where I came from. How rad.
“My office would be pink!” I thought. “Of course it would be pink! And I’d have the best people ever working with me in my office! But what would I DO in my office?” That was the question. I mean, I’d obviously be running some kind of major company, but at this point, I was 8 years old.
I had no life skills or experience, unfortunately. I didn’t even know what it meant to own or run a company (and I definitely had no idea that it wasn’t as easy as deciding that I wanted a pink building near the beach!), but I knew I wanted to do that one day.
I didn’t know what kind of company it would be, but I did have a special cousins-only club, the “VCA”, which seemed like a solid option at the time. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of hearing of our elite club, the “VCA” stood for “Vandal Club Agency.” (Ah, the life of the only girl in a sea of boy cousins…) We fought vandals of any and every kind with our well thought out plans of attack.
We were an impressively designed organization for elementary school kids, if I do say so myself. We created our very first mission statement: To take down our arch nemeses by any means necessary. We also had to place people into specific roles and positions according to their strengths and weaknesses, train them to fight the enemy, and lead our group with positivity… mainly because if we didn’t play nicely, one of the cousins would leave, and that was no fun at all.
It was my first lesson in business. That was all I needed. Plus my cousins were the greatest people I knew! (They still kinda are, by the way. #sykesfam) “That’s what I’ll do!” I thought. “I’ll buy the pink building, hire my cousins (I gave zero thought about what my giant group of boys would think about our pink office building), and we will build The VCA into an empire. And I’ll have my own office near the beach. And it’ll be PINK! Man, I can’t wait! I was 8.
Fast forward 25 years and my 6 year old daughter Avery is painting my office (2 blocks from the beach). Bright. Freaking. Pink. It’s not a building yet, it’s just a room without windows.
And it was a long road to get here. There were a lot of bumps, some mis-direction, a few breakdowns, some unnecessary wine intake, and a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but 25 years later, I have my pink office.
It isn’t how I expected it to look and it isn’t how I expected to get here when I was 8, but I got there. Or maybe, I am on my way there still. Either way, it feels surreal to watch my dreams come to life.
In this office, I’m building a company- a Rockstar-level real estate and media team.
I’m going to motivate, inspire, and push people to live the life of their dreams, without limits, because that’s what I’m passionate about- with the greatest people ever, too! You better believe I will. I said it and I try to only speak true things, so I’ve left myself with no option now!
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