Three Things I Wish I Had Known in My 20’s: Grace Clapham & Solonia Teodros

Grace and Solonia are the founders of The Change School. They offer a series of educational retreats in Bali for anyone from college grads to baby boomers, to find their path – from unlocking a new career move, to starting a business, uncovering their true passion.

Both of them are successful entrepreneurs in SE Asia, where innovation is blooming and each has an extensive business background and founded other companies they still work with today.

This week, Grace and Solonia each tell us their “3 Things”. Ladies, lots of good advice here, so make sure you read carefully!

Solonia Teodros, co-founder of The Change School and the founder of a boutique advisory SolWorks, where she helps socially-motivated businesses and individuals design, launch and amplify their new ventures.

1. I wish I’d taken a gap year right after college to uncover my passion, realize my strengths and discover my bigger purpose so that these formed the basis of my early career trajectory instead of the promise of a faster/fatter paycheck. I wish I’d applied the confidence and courage of my personal life toward pursuing opportunities that inspired me – like accepting the scholarship offer to the New England Conservatory of Music or doing an exchange program in Asia to further develop my Mandarin fluency.
2. I wish I’d known that student loans aren’t really worth the stress and physiological burden that goes into paying them back.
3. I wish I’d traveled more during my 10 years being back in the States. Especially during the time I was living in NYC – the pinnacle of creativity, diversity, hard work and harder play – where order out of chaos becomes a comfort zone and it’s easy to forget the value of seeing the rest of the world to keep pushing boundaries and gain new perspectives.

Grace Clapham, co-founder The Change School. Recent winner of the Talent Unleashed Award in the Inspirational Leadership category and is the founder of Agent Grace a boutique marketing and business agency and a prior Lead Curator for TEDxSingapore Women 2010, 2012 and 2013. 

1. I wish I’d known to listen to myself more and be confident in the fact that I had a pretty good understanding of who I was and where I wanted to go rather than taking into consideration societal viewpoints.
2. I wish I’d known how evil credit cards were and listened to my mother about never having a credit card at such a young age so I could better manage my finances when I got my first job.
3. I wish I’d known how to navigate through all the tools and resources that were available to me including accessing mentors and peer support.