Entrepreneurial Griffiths Member Shares Top Tips for Success and Happiness
Earlier this fall, Griffiths member Tricia Zimmer Ferguson (’03 BSBA, Business Management) was recognized with the Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) award.
She works with family in managing Kaldi’s Coffee, and she says family has provided her launch pad and foundation.
“In no particular order, I commit myself to five things that I can give 110% to,” she says. “Family—nothing is more important to me than my family and I make time for them every day—spirituality and religion, my career in our family business, local charitable organizations, and Mizzou.”
Her drive started at a young age as she observed her family build a business.
“My mom and dad are two of my best mentors. I spent a lot of my earlier years following my Dad and his brothers as they built a successful radio broadcasting business in the Midwest. That’s where my passion for building a business really started to take hold,” she says.
Tricia says that not only has she learned from her mentors, but she’s learned a lot about herself in being a mentor to others.
“Seek out a mentor and be one. I have found that the best mentor relationships are the ones that turn into long term ones. Also, I am always amazed at how much I learn about myself by being a mentor to someone else,” she says.
In her career, she appreciates being recognized for the quality of product, but she also actively pursues balancing her success in business with partnerships in the community.
“Over the years, we’ve been recognized by a number of local agencies and media for our great coffee. It’s nice to think that people are that fond of Kaldi’s, but we know that being a leader in the community isn’t just about sharing a quality product, it’s also about sharing our resources.”
That’s why Kaldi’s opens their facilities for community meetings, is involved in charitiable causes and boards, supports mentoring programs for grade schoolers and recycles their coffee grounds, cups and other consumables.
As an entrepreneur Tricia has the following advice for collegiate Griffiths members:
- Shoot, fire, and then aim. If you have an idea for something and you truly believe it will succeed and are willing to push yourself harder than you ever have before, then take the risk and just get started. Don’t over analyze. You know what they say paralysis by analysis.
- Make mistakes. It’s okay and it’s the only way to learn. Just make sure to own up to them too. Trust me, I make plenty of them every week.
- The only thing constant is change—so embrace it.
- It pays to have passion and perhaps more than anything, a passionate person acts.
- I also am a big believer that spending time on self-improvement is never a waste of time. I really try to have a plan of action in place each day so I go to bed smarter than when I woke up.
For alumnae members in Griffiths, Tricia says she’s still involved with Mizzou because she can give back to an organization that did so much for her.
“There are many of ways you can give back to MU. I would challenge each of you to consider reaching out this year as you might be amazed what you can gain by getting involved again. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support from all of my old professors and faculty from the College of Business. They have all impacted my life but only because I have embraced the opportunities as they have come along,” she says.