1. Be persistent and open-minded. There's more than one way to achieve your dream.
"I've had to sacrifice so much, so for me, persistence was always what got me through everything," Jason Pinchoff, founder of New York-based fashion line A PINCH LIFE, tells A Plus. By the time he was 18, he'd lost his sister and father, Jacqueline and Herbert, in a car accident, and his mother, Linda, to cancer. Instead of succumbing to these personal tragedies, he pushed through to create professional success.
Finding a creative outlet for his talents hasn't just helped Pinchoff cope with his own difficulties, but has inspired and empowered others as well. "Whatever you go through, if you use your history to help people, then everything you went through has a purpose," he adds. To honor his mother, he founded the Linda B. Pinchoff Foundation and its Kids' Day events to "bring a voice" and support services to those affected by cancer, which he supports with proceeds from A PINCH LIFE.
Before starting his own fashion line, Pinchoff worked in video production for over ten years. That experience taught him how to adapt and change "on the fly," a lesson that has continued to help him as an entrepreneur. "I find a lot of people get very stubborn in business because it's either their way or no way," he says, "[But] there's always more than one solution to every problem." Pinchoff encourages people to overcome obstacles by "opening their minds" to alternative solutions from those they trust. "Not everyone is gonna have the right answer, but someone might say something that helps you think a different way," he explains. After experiencing so much tragedy, Pinchoff could've turned his back on the world. Instead, he not only embraced it, but found a way to change it.