"Here is the thing about making decisions when starting a business on your own: they are scary. Terrifying! You don’t have a manager, you don’t have colleagues to bounce your ideas on, every step that you take carries 100% of the responsibility, and your only friend is your dog.

Okay, I may be overreacting.

What I learned though, through this process, is that by being honest, you can never go wrong. Coming from a strictly corporate environment, where the client is god, and one needs to bow down to every need and request, I always felt something was off about it. The nature of education is that it needs to be guided, and slow, transparent, and flowing, like a river. Not fast-paced. Certainly not on the clients' terms - since they want it fast and they want it now.

The shift from being servantly to being honest brought me more clients - and better quality, at that. It made me create clearer timelines for my students-clients in order to help them achieve their goals realistically, all the while offering great flexibility (keeping with the flowy metaphors) as a river changes with the times. It also made me happier.

And that's what it's about at the end. Being happy with your work, and your choices."