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Review Publisher's Weekly bestsellerECPA bestseller�Jessica�s perspective of global sisterhood and the power of lifting one another up in the midst of fear and scarcity is exactly what we need today. This book is both an invitation and a challenge to bravely show up for ourselves, for the people we love, and for the strangers that we will one day call family. I say, �Amen!�� �Bren� Brown, PhD, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Braving the Wilderness �I absolutely love this book. Jessica is smart, brave, honest, and funny, and this book is the perfect mix of listening-ear and kick-in-the-pants. Equal parts compassion and challenge, this is a must-read for all of us who want to make a difference with our lives but sometimes find fear and anxiety standing in the way.� �Shauna Niequist, New York Times best-selling author of Present Over Perfect and Bread and Wine �Sometimes a desperate need creates an opportunity to transform the world. Jessica�s story provides a beautifully imperfect tapestry for understanding what surrender and courage can look like when unexpected need tests our faith. She shows us that stepping into our stories can build a path to change someone else�s story. Learn how to harness your fear and transform it into courage that will change the world.� �LaTasha Morrison, founder and president of Be the Bridge� �Pick your reason to read this book: you care about the world, you are an entrepreneur, you love fashion, you love women, you have big ideas, you have a global mind-set, you are a builder, a dreamer, a visionary, a Texan (there is plenty of Texas in Jessica�s story). Imperfect Courage is fuel for all of these. It is as generous and adventurous as Jessica, who is the greatest leader, creator, and friend I�ve ever known.� �Jen Hatmaker, New York Times best-selling author of Of Mess and Moxie and host of the For the Love podcast �Jessica inspires me to think so much bigger than my own two hands. I�m so inspired by her heart and tenacity as an entrepreneur and by her commitment to connecting, empowering, and inspiring women around the world!� �Emily Ley, founder of Simplified and best-selling author of Grace, Not Perfection and A Simplified Life �Jessica Honegger has written a must-read account of how the work of justice goes hand in hand with women�s empowerment. And it all starts with steps of imperfect courage.� �Melissa Russell, chief advancement officer for International Justice Mission �Jessica is such an incredible example of what a leader in business should be. Not only because she�s had the courage to push herself to create a company from the ground up, but because she made her way down the road to success and then turned around and held a lantern up to light the way for the rest of us. This is a must-read for anyone who�s chasing big dreams on a road that feels unsteady!� �Rachel Hollis, New York Times best-selling author of Girl, Wash Your Face �As the CEO of Noonday Collection, Jessica�s lack of pretense and commitment to transparency have earned the trust of artisans and consumers alike. She brings that same approach to Imperfect Courage; each chapter feels like a personal invitation to ride alongside Jessica as she recounts memories that tell of her infectious passion for using entrepreneurship to empower women all over the globe. Her deep conviction for equality and justice is contagious and will change the lives of so many.� �Mica May, founder and CEO of May Designs �Jessica Honegger will captivate you with her adventure of building a company that is shaping and changing the world. You will find yourself crying, laughing, and wondering why you�ve played it so safe in life. She makes you want to risk it all for the good of people and the world, because doing so doesn�t just make life more meaningful; it makes it more fun!� �Jennie Allen, author of Nothing to Prove and founder and visionary of IF:Gathering �This book is your road map to uncovering and pursuing your big dream. Jessica teaches us all how to get past the lies that keep us from living our full potential in the world. As Imperfect Courage illustrates, the more each of us broadens our circle of compassion and embraces the entire globe, the faster the love of God makes it to every corner of the world.� �Amy Brown, co-host of The Bobby Bones Show �In this lovely book, Jessica opens up about the rocky journey of starting Noonday Collection, what she has learned along the way, and how she�s better because of the people she�s met. I�m so excited for you to read this story not just so you�ll know more about Jessica and Noonday but so you�ll know more about yourself and how you, too, can do big things�even if you are scared.� �Jamie Ivey, author of If You Only Knew and host of The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey podcast �Jessica Honegger�s journey is an inspiration not just to entrepreneurs and business leaders but to anyone seeking to pursue the dreams God puts in their hearts. Imperfect Courage is living proof that fashion can play an important part in changing the world and business can be an incredible force for good. The world needs more businesses like Noonday Collection and more mindfully ambitious leaders like Jessica Honegger.� �Megan Tamte, founder and co-CEO of EVEREVE Read more About the Author JESSICA HONEGGER is the founder of Noonday Collection, a fair-trade jewelry company that partners with artisans across the globe to create unique and hand-made pieces of jewelry. She and Noonday work to empower women from a wide variety of communities and cultures to create their own, thriving businesses by partnering with Noonday as an artisan or ambassador. Jessica lives in Austin with her husband and children. Read more Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. OneChoose CourageCourage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.-- John WayneIt�s the summer of 2017, and our group has just arrived in Uganda, returning to the place where Noonday Collection all began. I hear the drums beating in the distance, and my heartbeat falls into rhythm with the percussionists� tempo. Our group has come from all over the United States; social entrepreneurs�at Noonday, we call them ambassadors�who have achieved some serious sales goals to arrive at this moment and finally put faces to the names of the artisans they�ve known only from photographs. The surreal nature of the moment hits me as we step out of the van onto the red dirt road that leads to the jewelry workshop. It�s a journey that seven years ago I couldn�t have imagined, as I sat hunkered in my guest bedroom with nothing but a handful of paper-bead necklaces.I sneak behind the gate before the rest of my group and I are met with a tidal wave of tight hugs, swishing skirts, and joyful laughter. As the ambassadors emerge and are swept up in this celebratory parade, I tell them to resist the urge to get out their phones and snap photos. �Just be present!� I insist, raising my voice above the music. I don�t want us to miss a nanosecond of this experience.As I scan the familiar faces of my artisan friends�Mama Sham with her impossibly bright grin, Bukenya with a trace of a joke always on his face, Latifa with her eager smile, Caleb and his sturdy handshake, Rosetta with her freshly cut hair, Mama Jabal with her ever-changing head covering, and Nakato with her shy countenance�I think of the long journey we�ve all been on together. Seven years ago, I couldn�t imagine starting a business that fostered a global sisterhood. My little jewelry business had become more than I had ever dreamed it could be.***After the first trunk show, things really took off�women showed increased interest, I had multiple trunk shows after that, and the business emerged as one that was real. After a few months� work, demand grew not just in Austin but in cities across the country. I began to dream of what it would be like to work this business with other impact-hungry people like me. If I could multiply myself, then jobs across the world would multiply too, I figured; I was determined to see if I was right. But before I had a chance to start recruiting, I received an email from a woman in Seattle who had gotten wind of Noonday via another mom�s adoption blog. She wrote,'My name is Sara. I would be interested in hosting a Noonday trunk show, but I�m also wondering if it would be possible to do more than that. I�m interested in working with your company to host Noonday trunk shows in the Seattle area�to earn income toward my family�s own adoption, to help others raise funds, and to make a difference in the lives of women in Uganda and around the world. Like you, I�ve had the opportunity to travel and to volunteer in places such as Argentina, Guatemala, and Pakistan. I�m passionate about the not-just-for-profit business model and would be excited to work with your company. Would you be interested in talking more about what that could look like?'Why, yes, I would�Sara and I began to exchange emails, exploring a compensation model for this impromptu arrangement, and within a couple of months, Sara became the first Noonday Collection ambassador and held the first-ever Noonday trunk show outside of Texas.My vision was beginning to spread, and soon, more women were saying yes to launching their own Noonday businesses. Without realizing it, they had become Noonday�s first official ambassadors. In the next seven years, Noonday Collection would grow to add artisan partners in Guatemala, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Ecuador, Peru, India, Vietnam, Nepal, Afghanistan, and more; we would add ambassadors in every state across America; and we would sell nearly two million accessories, ship more than six hundred thousand orders, and raise more than half a million dollars for adoptive families through the adoption fundraiser trunk shows we continue to hold to this day.***In Uganda, as I watch my artisan friends dance, I reflect on how hopeful Jalia and I were seven years prior regarding the possibilities for this little endeavor, yet I was aware then that we each had taken wild risks to make it happen. Although the idea had gained traction, to be sure, most of the time I felt utterly incapable of leading the way. While I was passionate about my business�s success, I still had so much fear. I wondered about the outcome, whether that be failure or success, and I lay awake many nights worrying about both. Failure would mean lost livelihoods and perhaps a waste of all this time and effort. Success would mean more responsibility and a dramatic shift in how I spent my time�less Play-Doh and more PowerPoint. Was I really qualified to run a global business? My r�sum� said an emphatic no. Was I able to be an attentive and caring mom while also leading the company?During that time of uncertainty, on the other side of the world, Jalia too had taken a leap of faith in our partnership by hiring her first employees, all people who were living in acute poverty and for whom I felt the high stakes of their success. It was painfully clear to me that if I failed in this endeavor, there was more at stake than just my personal success. In moments of despair, that singular thought kept me from caving in. It fueled my earnest belief, and it bolstered my determination that nothing was going to keep me from building this thing I was building�not financial desperation, not mom-of-two-kids-under-three (so far) exhaustion, not direct-sales cynicism, not unfavorable odds of any�kind. If I was going to make it, I couldn�t wait around for my fears to dismiss themselves. Courage cornered me, and I accepted its challenge, regardless of what the cost would be.***One of my favorite thinkers and mentors, Andy Crouch, has a saying that my family has adopted for ourselves, which is that �the only thing money can buy is bubble wrap.��Andy�s sentiment is aimed primarily at North Americans who, by being born here, are among the most affluent in the world. Affluence and privilege can be used for incredible good�and I hope that by the end of this book you will awaken to the power your privilege can wield�but it can also insulate us from the best (and worst) things that life may bring our way. I know that being born in a wealthy zip code to two white, resourced parents certainly insulated me from the realities of racism, poverty, and injustices that many people around the world face daily. Truly, no matter how broke Joe and I may have felt during our real estate demise and adoption journey, we were not selling our prized-possession leather-bound Bible to get money for the only meal our family would have that week, which is what Jalia and Daniel once had to do.I�ve always been passionate about going in life�going out of my comfort zone, going straight through my fears, going scared. And yet even I acknowledge that there are myriad benefits to staying put: comfort, safety, and plush couches, to name a few.Take Netflix, for example. Is there anything more satisfying than tucking yourself into a comfy couch, remote in one hand, smartphone in the other, binge-watching Friday Night Lights�and scrolling through your social media feeds? Comfort. Safety. Security. Alrightness. Call it the siren song of the recliner. When we are seated, we cannot fall. Am I right? My own children, accident prone though they may be, have never broken an arm while watching TV.It�s tempting to bubble-wrap our lives. Layer upon layer of protection means we stay unbroken, right through to the end. We wrap ourselves in fear. We wrap ourselves in isolation. We wrap ourselves in nightly glasses of wine or in our beloved Instagram feed. We avoid real issues involving real people who live in the real world because, What if I get hurt? And yet what does this approach yield for us? A life of boredom, a lack of impact, spiritual death.�Amidst safety the world has never before known,� Andy wrote, �the greatest spiritual struggle many of us face is to be willing to take off our bubble wrap.�We know that outside our front door, something much more fulfilling lies in wait. But instead of pursing the desires of our heart, we spend our energy in defense mode, trying to avoid disappointment, betrayal, and pain. Something in us clings to these places of safety and makes it difficult to stand�even as something deeper within us longs to stand up, to eventually rise.Here on the couch, you and me, we can�t make a misstep. We can�t break a limb here. We can�t get shamed here.And yet. (Here is where I may gently tug that cozy blanket off you.) We know down in the marrow of our bones that we were made for something more.***My original motivation for writing this book hinged on a single thought: There is a whole world out there begging for us to use the opportunity we have been given to create opportunity for others so that we�all of us�can flourish. So, while comfort may beckon us, choosing courage will always be the route to impact.When we first step out of our comfort zones to embrace our larger world, a small but meaningful revolution takes place inside us as formerly invisible injustices are juxtaposed against a bubble-wrapped reality. Even now, when I think back to the day when my teenage eyes were first opened to the harsh realities faced by so many people in our world, I can feel the weight of it hitting me afresh, like being plunged into ice-cold water after spending my whole life comfortably warm.When I was fifteen years old, I signed up to volunteer on a trip to Kenya with my church. There in East Africa, I would witness the obstacles faced by many people living in poverty and see with fresh perspective just how many resources I had at my disposal. Where I grew up, many kids received new cars on their sixteenth birthday, friends spent their weekends four-wheeling around ranches that had been passed down through generations of Texans, and life revolved around the Fiesta social events of San Antonio. It was a far cry from what I would see in Kenya. My world was about to get rocked.When my church group landed in Nairobi, I took in the bustling city. Amid the dizzying scene, the image of one woman stood out to me, the contrast of her bright eyes impossible to miss. Set against a backdrop of dusty shanties and corrugated-metal-roofed lean-tos, one crawling on top of the next as far as the eye could see, was a makeshift set of wooden shelves, held erect by sawed-off tree limbs that supported a well-worn tarp. Positioned precariously but with great intention on those shelves were baskets of fruits and vegetables�tomatoes and bananas, avocados and mangos, potatoes and cabbages�their vibrant hues catching my eye.One of my Kenyan friends explained that this woman was a new entrepreneur, her bustling stand made possible by a microcredit loan she had recently received. Evidently, the woman�s husband, an abusive man who drank any earnings he brought home from odd jobs, was not providing for his children. So she had decided to take matters into her own hands. I was immediately inspired by this woman�s spirit. Though our lives and motivations were very different, I too had an entrepreneurial itch. From the jewelry stands I set up as a kid where I would hawk my handmade banana clips and conch earrings to the no-frills day camp I launched in junior high for grade-schoolers in my neighborhood, I had always been attracted to the idea of multiplying whatever resources I had into something much more. And this woman was taking what she had been given and running with it, transforming simple fruits and vegetables into economic empowerment.My fifteen-year-old self would have been incredulous had she been told that one day she�d return to those very same streets as an adult, offering up entrepreneurial opportunities for other Kenyans living in the slums. The fact that Noonday now partners with eighty-five talented metalworkers in Nairobi is one of the sweetest serendipities I�ve known in life. And it�s a beautiful reminder that you and I can take the resources we�ve been given and invest them for good in this world. Yes, such investments will cost us something�comfort, security, control. But impact doesn�t come from the couch dweller, right? It comes from those with imperfect courage who choose to go scared. In the same way that a toddler learns to walk by walking, we get our courage legs under us only when we stand to our feet and move. Read more
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