One of my favorite experiences is life was creating a magazine completely from scratch. I was at Northwestern University, arguably the best journalism school in the country next to Columbia. I was a film student but I was appalled that our school had no magazine. A great paper, sure, but no magazine!

I created the concept for 3am. In college, whether one is partying or studying, life seems to happen at 3am. So I assembled a crack team of writers, editors and artists and found that it was almost impossible to keep everyone interested in what was simply an idea. Who knew if anything would even come of it? Not to be deterred, I took the few articles I had and wrote all the others myself. I designed all the pages, and went store to store selling ads.

I must say, the final product did not look good. But I proved it could be done, and I took that first copy to every journalism class, asking, "Who's with me?!" From that call I assembled a group of 10 editors and writers. They were passionate, they were experienced, and since I proved I could deliver the means, they were ready and willing. Together we created our first glossy and I drove to Kansas myself to pick up the copies from the printing press.

The magazine was well-received, but as anyone in advertising can attest, it's neither easy, nor fun. Instead of calling it a day, I found a grant to keep the magazine going and the staff expanded to 20. And when the grants ran out, it looked like it was all over from there. But I lobbied the school to adopt the magazine and they decided to fully fund the publication and provide an office, all days before I graduated.

Through this experience I learned that if you're truly dedicated to an outcome, the solution will present itself. That said, the universe will challenge you to make sure you're serious!

Epilogue: I just remembered there is a second lesson I learned. I also created a sister web magazine. It received more feedback and attention than the print copy, but this was 1996 and I thought print was so much more alluring. In hindsight, expanding the online magazine would have been a bold move with a bigger pay off. So I have learned to pay attention to trends, and stay ahead of the game.