Nina Pinidi, the owner of Solime Royal Hair, juggles her business, school and breast cancer treatments.
More than half of small businesses are born from someone’s desire to find freedom. Nina Pinidi’s business was born out of necessity.
Her comrades needed products they couldn’t find on base or on deployment, but her morale needed it too after serving 17 years.
She rose in rank to chief petty officer with deployments to Japan, Guantánamo Bay, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Chile and Djibouti before getting sick and having to medically retire.
“I was really in a dark time when I was out because it’s like all of a sudden you’re not needed anymore,” she said. “You don’t have to wear a uniform. No one calls you for advice. No one needs your mentorship, and that literally stops overnight.”
