The End of My 20’s: 20 Mistakes That Made Me a Millionaire by 24
How my biggest fails turned into my most lucrative wins.
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If you told 20-year-old me that I'd be a self-made, Forbes-listed multi-millionaire by the time I could legally rent a car, I would’ve assumed you had me confused with someone else—probably someone who didn’t cry after being laughed out of VC meetings or send typo-filled emails to eight subscribers from a college dorm. But here’s the real plot twist: I didn’t get here because I had it all figured out. I got here because I didn’t. And those so-called missteps? They became the exact stepping stones I needed to create a platform that’s helped millions of women wake up, get inspired, and feel seen.
So in honor of closing out this messy, magical, million-dollar decade—here are 20 mistakes that helped shape the woman and entrepreneur I am today. And here's a reminder: Things that seem like the worse thing that's ever happened to you may actually turn out to be something that changes your life for the better.
1. Start before you feel qualified. I sent the first Newsette from my BU dorm room with zero media experience—and that early jump-shot changed my life. Since I didn't wait until I was "ready" or had the "resources," I had years to fail in front of a smaller audience and also grow my skillset. It takes years to perfect a product -- so starting early just gives you a longer runway then the rest.
2. Bootstrapping builds serious business muscle. Growing to a $200 million valuation without outside capital forced me to master profit, not promises.
3. Consistency compounds. A daily newsletter meant showing up every morning; the trust (and ad revenue) snowballed.
4. Word-of-mouth still beats fancy ads. Our earliest growth hack was simply “forward to a friend.”
5. Rejection can be rocket fuel. VC meetings that ended in laughter became the receipts I keep in my mental trophy case.
6. Own your story—messy parts included. Talking openly about OCD and ADHD turned vulnerability into community.
7. Build community first, product second. Women trusted us before we ever pitched them a brand partnership.
8. Profitability > vanity metrics. Likes are nice; cash flow pays the team (and keeps the mission alive).
9. Diversify early. Our creative studio arm let us weather ad-market mood swings.
10. Pay it forward while you level up. Even before I did anything I was personally proud of, I was able to connect people in my network to each other that ended in huge success stories. There is ALWAYS someone who looks up to where you are in your journey, and as my BFF + Mentor DVF likes to say "waving your magic wand" by making connections can really make magic happen for everyone involved.
11. Representation matters (and sells). Being a Latina founder wasn’t a hurdle; it was my differentiator. While the fact that my mother is an immigrant from Colombia could have been an excuse to give up after seeing the sad stats about BIPOC founders, instead I used it as one of the ingredients in my special sauce.
12. You can learn while leading. I balanced finals and funding decks—imperfectly, but it worked.
13. Hire people who “get” your audience. Diversity on the masthead keeps the content real.
14. Celebrate tiny wins. First 1k subscribers? Cupcakes. Positive reply from a reader? Screenshot folder.
15. Seek mentors outside your echo chamber. Sara Blakely’s advice on CHASM reminded me success leaves clues.
16. Protect your mornings. My non-negotiable A.M. routine guards focus before inbox chaos hits.
17. Keep a beginner’s mindset. Pretend you’re the intern once a quarter; ask “why” until answers feel obvious.
18. Embrace embarrassment. When I was building my subscriber list during college, I was so excited to grow my little newsletter that I would go up to random people at the campus Starbucks and ask for their thoughts on the content and pitch them to subscribe. One of my mottos is "if you aren't embarrassed by what you did 6 months ago, you aren't running fast enough."
19. Storytelling sells better than selling. Brands partner with narratives, not bullet-points. When Newsette didn't have the "scale" to win big RFPs against competitors, we focused on building a world that they wanted to step into. And worked harder to make it come to life. Suddenly, we had more "scale" where it mattered -- clicks and conversions.
20. "Success isn't final and failure isn't fatal." This is one of my favorite quotes, because it is absolutely spot-on. No one you look up to has a straight line to success. Or a fairytale "the end" moment once they hit their milestone. You have to work to keep what you built every single day, and sometimes things outside of your control will hit the foundation you built like a hurricane. Success to me is how you respond when it's the coldest winter, not how you celebrate when your career is a careless summer.
