Three years ago, I was working as an art director at an ad agency. The

Three years ago, I was working as an art director at an ad agency. The hours were long, the clients were picky and internal dramas were aplenty. It was then that I realized I wanted something new. I’d always had an interest in interior design, and home styling was a field I wanted to crack into, but I wasn’t sure how to pursue this passion and make it something worthwhile.
As luck would have it, I came across a post on Design*Sponge mentioning Grace’s hunt for writers to cover the site’s home tours. Without any writing experience, but with a burning will to get the job, I applied, staying up until the wee hours of the morning mocking up what my pieces would look like within the site’s design. Luckily, that little extra touch worked. I not only got the job, but the process taught me a valuable lesson: to go for something you want wholeheartedly and to not simply choose a new path, but blaze a new trail. Taking a risk and going for it is something interior designer Magalie René-Hayes is familiar with as well. After years working in another field, she flipped the script and opened her own design firm. It wasn’t easy, and thoughts of self-doubt often plagued her as they did me, but over time she hurdled over obstacle after obstacle. In the end, she found herself doing the work she was always meant to, designing homes from California to Virginia.
Magalie’s caree...