Page 57 - Sorry, We're Not Hiring Any Visionaries Today

CHAPTER 7
I have dates that went wrong. I pretended that I could see. I sat there thinking, “This is embarrassing, but it will make for an excellent story one day. I had no idea what for exactly; I just kept going.
I keep going. This is my internal dialogue. I go out there, expose myself, do the opposite of what I feel like doing, and just be in people’s faces.
When I give a presentation, I have had people come up to me afterwards and cry. People send me emails telling me how they want to overcome their chal- lenges. They are intense personal stories. I’ve had so many, and it just goes down to one thing: connection. I connected with people, and this was the most valuable thing.
Regarding the financial side of things, I’ve had ups and downs. I spent four years working as a makeup artist despite my visual impairment. I pushed it as far as I could. Quite by accident, I wound up working at a huge company. It’s funny how I got the job because I never applied. I was shopping at this high-end store and describing some lipstick to my friend. She was hesitant about buying it. The manager overheard our conversation. He approached me and said, “I’ve been looking for someone. It’s been two weeks, and I’m not clicking with anyone. I’m not finding anyone appropriate. What are you doing?”
I told him I was a makeup artist and studying marketing at university. And then he said, “Well, would you like a job here?’ I said, “Yes, of course.” He asked me to send my resume, and I started the next day.” This is how I got the job, and I loved it, but eventually, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was making mistakes. I looked lost, and I didn’t tell them. They didn’t know. My boss always looked at me and wondered, “What is wrong with this girl?”
They didn’t know I had a visual impairment when I was hired. I felt like I was a fraud, you know, working as a makeup artist, and I can’t even see what I’m doing. But it was like a wishy-washy situation because it’s like, I can see, but I cannot see enough. I was under a lot of pressure and got tired and stressed. This meant I made more mistakes, which is normal.
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