Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia the movie...have you seen it yet? I went last night with my mother-in-law and my niece. My mother-in-law was wiping away tears as we left the theater and my teenage niece, Kelsey, critiqued it as “just OK". My review would fall somewhere in the middle. The words that initially come to mind are cute and relatable (is that a word).

If you aren't familiar with the storyline it is about a 29 year old woman (Julie) that doesn't feel like she has "made it" professionally, while her friends are basking in their career success. She has attempted, in the past, to capitalize on her creative interests, in hope of leaving her cubical career behind. However, those attempts failed to materialize any meaningful results. Her passions are cooking and writing but her day job involves neither.

This is me, only I'm 41 and not 29 and I don't have a passion for cooking or even writing really. But I do have creative and entrepreneurial interests and several less-than-fulfilling attempts at capitalizing on them.

In the movie Julie decided to dedicate her free time to cooking and blogging her way through Julia Child's cookbook. Ultimately the story is about how both women (Julie and Julia) turn their passion into successful careers.

You should know that I'm the kind of person that finds inspiration in fortune cookies so it might not surprise you when I say that this movie spoke to me. This isn't the first time that I have heard the message “find the thing you are passionate about and turn it into a career.” I still have the article I read two years ago that offered the same advise which gave me courage to launch Casual Panache.

Turning a passion into a business is damn hard work. Like Julie, I still have a day job, so it's very slow going, requires a wide range of technical skills I haven't yet mastered, and it costs money. With obstacles like these confronting me, I am often looking for “signs” and encouragement wherever I can find it that counter my “what the hell was I thinking” fears.

For me this movie was serendipitous. Here are my take-aways:
1.It can happen; dedication and passion can pay off.
2.Theme parties are timeless (both Julia and Julie hosted theme parties in the movie).
3.I need to start blogging again.