In 1975 I was looking for a way to make some money to send my daughter to nursery school. She was an only child and I thought that would be good for her. I was a stay at home mom and money was tight. My husband said that we couldn't afford it. Those words are not my favorites!! So I gave it some thought and decided to try direct sales. My goal was to make enough to cover nursery school, and I did.



From there I went on to several more direct sales and home party plans, maybe six or seven of them. As my children became older, in the 80's I took a job in a major department store. It was okay and I found in the 22 ? years that I was there I worked in lingerie, the house ware items and small appliances department where I did cookware demonstrations, from there, gift wrapping for the holidays, shipping, vendor returns, inventory control, the cash office and finally I became the human resources administrator. Some of that time I held these outside home party types of jobs.

Finally in June of 2004 I was offered a severance package from the company. Wow! There had been so many times I had wished for that opportunity. Even though working for a major department store offered me many ?benefits? I still would dream of self employment. The severance package included, retiree health insurance and so I contemplated taking this direction!

It was a bit frightening to say the least. Yet, what was haunting me was the fact that I had been wishing for this severance package for at least 10 years. I had become divorced in the 80's and so now, what do I do? I am a divorced woman with no income except what I can bring in myself. This in itself is pretty scary. When I got home from work that night I checked my email and found a long note from my cousins wife. She was a planning a vacation in my area and wondered if I knew anyone that I could refer to her. You see she had a home party type business that she was becoming quite good at. Her team was growing and she was hoping to expand into my part of the state. So I thought, ?why not me?! After all, I certainly had tried it enough times already. So I went back to work the next day and signed the severance acceptance letter and joined Maggie's team! People thought that I was crazy after 22 ? years to take the severance pay and run. All that I could think about was that if did not take it and later wished I had, I would be so upset with myself. I thought, all I would have to hear is just one person say, ?well, you had your chance to get out and you did not take it!? That would have been horrible to hear!

I left and started another home-based business. About a year into it I had some minor health challenges that led me to another great product. Well, you guessed it. I had good results with it and decided that these home parties were not really my passion! I started to think about how many companies I had tried and what was it that I didn't like. I was also faced with, how good am I at this profession?

What I discovered was that I was not a failure at those other jobs; it was that my goal was to low and I met it! By working with Ellie Drake and joining the Brave Heart Women's Community I'm learning to raise my goals. I now have loftier dreams and I know with continued training, that I can meet them!