Recapping the Forbes Under 30 Summit: What I Learned

So the story goes like this,

I had just left my job as co-founder at Event Hollow and was taking a serious leap into my career as a Personal Brand Strategist. 

It was exciting. 

Around that time I remember wanting to attend the Under 30 Summit so badly, but felt like I couldn’t justify the expense as a new business owner. 

So Instagram kept showing me ads, and I kept the idea nudged safely in the back of my mind. C'est la vie.

Then, I noticed that one of my favorite profiles on Instagram (@thetravelcritic) announced that she was giving away free tickets to the Under 30 Summit. 

I entered my name. 
Told her why I wanted to attend.
Pushed “send,” 
And had this gut feeling that I was going to win.

I was right. I did win. 

I booked my flight and packed my bags one week later. I was going to Forbes Under 30. 

Hell. Yes.

As my flight descended into Detroit, I had so many questions surfacing to the top of my mind. I had no idea what to expect:

Would I feel overwhelmed? 
Star-struck? 
Perhaps a bit out of my league? 

The Under 30 Summit boasted speakers like Serena Williams, Sophia Bush, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, and Olivia Munn to list just a few. There were 9,000 global attendees, 500 top investors, and hundreds of journalists in attendance. The conference was impressive.

I anticipated that I would learn from any of the 20+ focused tracks on branding, marketing, fundraising, and other such topics of a similar nature. Although, to my surprise, that’s not where I did most of my learning.

Each day I moved through crowds full of people. Entrepreneurs, Investors, Celebrities, Speakers… some of the most innovative and successful millennials of our era.

While I thought the summit would provide me tangible information that would be applicable to my business and brand; instead, it gave me the strongest sense of connection, inspiration, and camaraderie with like-minded entrepreneurs. 

Each conversation was like stepping into an entirely new story—a story where the entrepreneur becomes the hero, and their business becomes the secret weapon to fight crime and solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Thousands of stories, heroes, and secret weapons walking all around me.
On their way to move and change the world. 

While some people had already built successful businesses and raised millions of dollars, some had nearly just begun. What all of these people had in common was their unnerving desire to create change, solve problems, and serve their communities. 

Passion isn’t passive, it’s active.
Companies don’t change the world, people change the world. 

Every entrepreneur I was able to meet at the Forbes Under 30 Summit is living actively in their life and business.
They are actively choosing the life they’ve dared to ask for.

Are you living passively or actively? How are you choosing to honor your dreams? Tell me in the comments below.