When I woke up on the morning of my 24th birthday, I knew my life needed a drastic overhaul. There wasn’t much to look forward to if I kept on the current path: my job, though well-paying, had no room for growth. My best friend had just passed, leaving me grief-stricken without my trusted confidant. I wanted to find love and start a family, but as a lesbian in a small conservative southern town, I had zero romantic prospects.
After a few days of searching for a way out, I developed the perfect solution: I’d take out a credit card, quit my job, and move to Los Angeles. Everyone thought I was crazy. I had $3000 in the bank and no job prospects, but something in my gut promised that I could make this work.
Almost as soon as I spotted the first palm tree, I felt my financial clock start ticking. While my cash nest egg could carry me pretty far in the South, it was painfully clear that surviving in LA would require an urgent new income plan. Scarred from my years behind a desk, I longed to try something exciting. I craved flexibility and daily interaction with others. I’d always thought bartenders were pretty badass, so I hopped on Google, conducted a few hours of research, and signed myself up for a class at 10 am on Monday morning.
The class structure was simple and straightforward: one lesson a day for seven days and an opportunity to test out and earn certification on day eight. The instructor explained that anyone who failed was welcome to retake the class until they passed, but every day I heard my financial clock ticking a little bit louder than the day before. Failure wasn’t an option, so I stayed after class each day to study recipes and practice movements.
Within a week of earning my certification, I booked my first gig: a job bartending at a wedding venue near the water. They were booked four days a week during wedding season and paid $15 an hour plus tips. I worried that my hourly would leave my struggling, but after counting the wad of cash I took home from the first shift, I dove in and never looked back.
It’s been over seven years since I learned to stir a martini, and still, every time I pay my rent, I thank the Universe for that class. I’ve had single nights where I’ve pulled in substantially more in cash tips than I paid for the course, making the return-on-investment for this trade outpace my undergraduate education at an astronomical level.
I’ve used this skill to meet new people and make friends, to get my foot in the door at restaurant companies I wanted to grow into, and to pick up one-off gigs that saved my ass when money fell short. Bartending gave me a schedule flexible enough to meet and date my fiancee, who also works a customer service job.
Without that class and the knowledge to bartend, I don’t think I would have ever had an image of what I wanted my writing career to look like. My college professors had given me three career choices: professor, starving artist, or surprise New York Times bestselling author. Not a single one appealed to me.
I liked blogging. I liked browsing the internet and reading magazines. I also liked knowing I could pay my bills. Bartending allowed me to make all of my money by working just 20–30 hours a week. I could spend the rest of my time reading voraciously and writing on the internet just because I loved to do it. Those passion articles led to my first freelance client and introduced me to a whole world of possibility I didn’t even know existed when I graduated.
Taking a leap of faith can feel so good when you know it’s right. People have told me that throwing $400 at a bartending course when I didn’t have a job and could barely contribute to the rent was a really stupid decision.
To those people: I wholeheartedly disagree. It isn’t stupid to invest in yourself. It’s smart and forward-thinking. People who are household names for their success in a variety of fields tout the importance of it every day.
In his infamous Stanford Commencement Speech, Apple and Pixar founder Steve Jobs talks about taking a calligraphy class after dropping out of college. He was literally sleeping on his friends’ floors at the time because he didn’t have a dorm room. Ten years later, he used what he learned in that class to create multiple typefaces for the first Macintosh computer.
Game-changing vocal artist Beyonce once said, “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.” After making the decision to leave Destiny’s Child, she’s become a cultural icon in her own right.
Thought leader Marie Forleo often reveals in interviews that once she decided to become a life coach, she started waiting tables and tending bar to pay the bills while she built up her business. Now she’s a New York Times bestselling author and coaches people across the globe through her two signature courses.
For two weeks I studied intensely and squeezed every possible bit of knowledge I could out of that bartending course. One small investment, one intuitive decision to bet on myself literally changed the course of my life. It gave me the confidence and freedom to pursue the life I want to live. What can it do for you?
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