Written for EO by Kate Holden, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and business leader behind De Luca Fine Wines, a fast-growing retail and e-commerce wine business. Kate is president of the EO Winnipeg chapter and serves on the EO Canada Board as Canada’s MPD (Member Products Director).

As a kid, I grew up feeling different than everybody else.

Some of my most vivid childhood memories consist of a constant stream of questions, asking me “why” I was the way I was. My mother would get calls from the principal because I was secretly wearing makeup in grade 4. “Why do you have to be … different?” she would ask me.

Later in my youth and into adulthood, questions around why I was the way I was continued to follow me:

• Why do you wear so much makeup?
• Why are you always in heels?
• Why is your hair always done?

I was the friend, the co-worker, the acquaintance who put a puzzled, vexed look on faces everywhere I went. I noticed my expectations were higher than others’. My career ambitions were different, too: I had dreams of owning my own business and building something of my own. More questions came.

I spent years feeling misplaced, uncomfortable with many people, and not fitting in many environments. I started to question myself, wondering why my views, feelings and standards were so different.

Then, I became an entrepreneur.

In my company’s early years, I was immersed in the “bubble” of my business. As time passed and the business grew, I began to meet other entrepreneurs, and that’s how I discovered EO. For the first time, suddenly, I found myself fitting in. There were others just like me!