I did more than just switch lanes that day: I switched careers — and everything I knew.

I am one of the lucky ones. If I had let that day be like all the others, I would've let my new idea just fly out the car window, then continued on with my sales job — as usual — until the clock struck five. But I couldn't let that idea go. Then and there, in traffic, I put the wheels in motion to start my own line of luxurious personal-care products and hand-poured candles.

(And since I never liked my name, the only illogical thing to do was to call my line "Niven Morgan!" I now love my name ... )

That was in 1998, and I have since built a story of candles, soaps, lotions, spa products and home scents with inspirations drawn from my excursions as well as from my childhood memories of my family’s Louisiana farm. I find those inspirations everywhere I go, everywhere I walk, everywhere life takes me. St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. The souks of Marrakech. By the sea in Mustique. I love being outdoors and breathing in the aromas and seeing nature up close, so I travel the world capturing the essence of exotic and inspiring locales to serve as the spirit for products that I hope lift yours.

I take these experiences and visions to my team — and then the fun begins. I am so hands-on, I drive my chemist and my production team crazy. I touch and feel and refine every formula, every product, hundreds of times before we go to market. I am obsessed with getting things right for you. Then I look to you to see how I am doing. I've done hundreds of personal appearances. I love the interaction. I value the feedback. Over the years, I have heard it all — and, FYI, you've got to take the glory with a grain of salt and the bad with a dose of reality!

Reality is the thing that keeps me in check. It keeps me moving forward. I started my company that fateful day and I've never looked back. It has been a wild, wonderful, hard trip — but the journey is worth it. I look back now and thank God I was stuck in traffic on that crazy day in Dallas, and that I had a few moments alone to just think. Slow down. Think. Enjoy. Risk. We're more in control of our futures than we think — and those futures look, and smell, quite bright.

To you,

Niven