Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Molly Voorhees, President of Beck’s Prime, Houston’s leading fast casual restaurant. Molly, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Molly: Thank you Leisa, it’s great to be here.

Leisa: You are so successful and you’re very young so I’m not going to ask you about advice for the next generation but you’re in a family-owned business, you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve been to business school, you were in the tech business; what advice to you have for someone else who wants to achieve the success that you’ve had?

Molly: You know Leisa you look back over time and you think wow, how did I get here? If I could go back and tell myself ok, in 20 years after you graduate from college and you have so much ahead of you, one thing I think people always need to remember is if you’re unhappy doing what you’re doing there’s opportunity to change; that we’re actually not stuck. And when I go back I’ve always loved the things I was doing along the way in my career but I also was constantly seeking new opportunities and new ideas and reflecting on what I liked or didn’t like about my current role. And I think that that helps a young person figure out where they’re going to thrive the most and I even look at where I am now – it’s like thrive where you are but also continue to drive towards new things.

Don’t be afraid to try something new. It really hurts to fail; it can be soul-crushing to have something not work, to have to close a restaurant. My husband’s a writer – to have a book not sell, to sit on the shelf. But if he hadn’t written the second book it wouldn’t have sold and you wouldn’t have a readership and you wouldn’t have the second, third and fourth books. And I’ve experienced that in the restaurant business; we have so many ideas that we have thrown out there that have failed. And then you have the successes and those are so much fun but you don’t ever get the success unless you put yourself out there. So go for it, bring it on! That’s what I would suggest.

Leisa: Thank you very much. There you have it, great advice from an extraordinary woman. I’m Leisa Holland Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at ContactActive.com or follow me on Twitter. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.