My story is not extraordinary. I am not extraordinary. I have learned, however, that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and exceptional leadership can come from unexpected beginnings with the right mentorship, the right attitude, and a lot of hard work.

Growing up in a two-bedroom apartment in a working-class neighborhood just north of Boston, I shared a room with my sister and my two brothers shared a converted porch. Those early close quarters contributed to the close-knit ties I still have with my family. We did not have a lot of “things,” but we had a lot of love. I fondly remember family projects like making our own living room furniture so that we could have a place to sit together. My father built the framework, and the rest of us worked with my mother to fabricate the cushions and pillows. We used the furniture for many years, not only for its intended function; we also used the cushions and pillows for imaginative games when the weather was too cold to play outside.

Like all parents, mine wanted a better life for their children, and they impressed on us the importance of school, hard work, and family time . . . sometimes in unusual ways. My mother worked at the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) office and would occasionally take us to work with her because she wanted to give us a strong visual sense of what true poverty was—and to motivate us to do whatever was necessary to create the kind of life she envisioned for us. She also frequently drove us through the most crime-ridden areas of town to give us an up-close view of the effects of illegal drugs. During these unconventional but highly educational tours, she would tell us, “This is your future if you don’t go to college.”

With my mom’s encouragement, I entered the workforce at age nine when I got my first newspaper route. I spent my mornings before school on my bike throwing papers onto porches and driveways, and my weekends were spent collecting the $1.50 I had invested in the newspapers from the previous week. Always the optimist, each week I was hopeful for a tip or two, and I was always grateful when I got them. Between the paper route and babysitting, I got my first taste of entrepreneurship and the satisfaction of having a bit of my own money. This was my first game changer. When I was 14, I decided I was ready to take it to the next level. I lied about my age and landed a job at an ice cream parlor. I worked hard and after several years, I eventually earned enough money to buy my first car. It was a clunker, but it was my ride to independence.

My mother had two rules for college: (1) I had to study business and (2) the school I chose had to be far enough away from Boston that I could not come home on the weekends. Thanks to a cross-country scholarship and a small academic scholarship, I decided to study economics and headed 1,300 miles south to Weber College in Florida. My trusty old clunker, a diesel VW Rabbit, took me all the way there, but it didn’t last long after that. The car had engine issues, and I had to “pop the clutch” to get it going. Ideally, I would park facing downward on a hill to make this process fairly easy. That worked in Massachusetts, but central Florida is completely flat, so I learned to be innovative. Being far away from home not only forced me to be independent but helped me hone my creative problem-solving skills. I learned to park far away from any other cars so that I could push start my car while running alongside it, and then hop in and be on my way. This was fantastic exercise and a great complement to the training I was doing with the track team!

After my first year of college, my clunker and I headed north to spend the summer with my family. Halfway through my journey home, I stopped at a rest area to use the restroom. I left my car running so that I would not have to struggle with starting it again. I was only gone a few minutes, but when I returned to the parking lot, I was shocked to see clouds of black smoke billowing out of my car. I will never forget the day my car blew up in Jessup, Maryland. Fun times.

My remaining college years were spent bumming rides from friends to get to school and work. Fortunately, I do not remember them ever trying to avoid me. Someone was always there lending me a helping hand, even when it was inconvenient. This experience was also game changing. I learned the value of modesty and the importance of altruism. To this day, I continually strive to keep these values at the forefront of who I am.

Another game changer happened when I was working as a bartender to support myself while I was finishing school. Attempting to launch a career in banking, the timing was not good because of the consolidating industry, and I was having trouble breaking into the industry. One night, two young men sat at the bar and starting talking about how much they loved their sales jobs. I overheard their lively conversation about fun and travel and money. It sounded glamorous, so I engaged them to find out more. When they told me they worked for a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company, I had no idea what that meant, but I asked if their company was hiring. When they said yes, I asked for contact information to send a resume. They laughed and told me they were not hiring women.

Wait . . . what?

Momentarily stunned, yet fueled by a naturally competitive spirit, I was not letting that go. Game on, guys. I pushed for reasons and was told that women did not fit the company’s profile for sales reps. Seriously. Discouraged but not deterred, I bided my time. After serving the men a couple more drinks, I pressed for contact information again and this time was successful. The next morning, I called the company and got the job. This was my first venture into a career in the PBM industry—an industry I had previously never even heard of. It was also an important lesson in the power of persistence.

Fast-forward a couple years. . . . Eager to advance my career, I decided it was time to look for a better opportunity, and I applied for a position with a drug manufacturer. During my fourth interview, I found out that there were hundreds of applicants for the position and I had made it to the final three candidates. When I got the call for a fifth and final interview, I was informed that the interview was set for 10 A.M. on a Friday. It was impossible for me to meet the hiring manager’s schedule because of existing work commitments. There was no flexibility in the appointment, so with much reluctance, I had to decline the interview. However, I was not ready to give up on this opportunity. That Friday evening, without a detailed plan but armed with youthful confidence and naïve fearlessness, I drove 120 miles to the small town in New York where I knew the decision maker lived. My gut was telling me that I had to exhaust all efforts to get this job. The next morning, I went to a pay phone near a local diner, looked up the decision maker’s home phone number, and asked him if I could get that final interview. Over breakfast, I landed the job.

As Teddy Roosevelt famously said, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

My new sales job with the drug manufacturer presented many remarkable learning opportunities. I was assigned to cover the state of Connecticut. This was a new territory for the company, so it was my responsibility to introduce the company as well as their products. The sales training was exceptional and very beneficial. Because this was a new territory, there was no database of prospects to target. I spent a considerable amount of time going through the “yellow pages” to find doctor’s offices. I quickly learned the times that I would most likely have an opportunity to get past the gatekeepers and speak directly to the doctors, even if only for a few seconds. This was another game changer. I was forced to greatly improve my organization and time management skills, and I became much more efficient. I loved the scrappiness that was required to be successful, and my entrepreneurial spirit was stoked again.

After proving my value, I was promoted to train new sales reps and relocated to Chicago. This was another opportunity to learn and grow, building new relationships and becoming skilled at the Midwestern way of doing business. A few years later, I was recruited by my former employer to move to Massachusetts and assume a management position. There, I developed a business plan to turn around the company’s lagging business in Florida and Georgia. I negotiated a move back to Florida, where I turned the business around to the top-performing territory for the company. I gained valuable experience on both the workers’ compensation and commercial sides of the industry before moving on to another company, where I took advantage of the opportunity to learn about another side of the business. This is where a met a truly wonderful mentor who took me under her wing and coached me on business acumen as well as the specifics of group health. Twenty years later, we are still close friends and are once again colleagues working on the same team.

Because of the opportunities that presented themselves, along with the opportunities I created for myself, by this time I was well-versed in many aspects of the health insurance business: managed care, the commercial third-party administrator (TPA) market, pharmacy benefit management, pharmaceutical sales, and health care plans. This set of experiences helped me stand out from others in my profession and propelled my career to greater heights. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was prepared to resign from my position, but when I made that difficult call to the CEO, I did not even get the words out before he told me that the company would strongly support work-family balance. With much help from my mother, I continued working and traveling extensively. Often, my mother and toddler would accompany me on road trips for a day or two on a moment’s notice. (Thanks, Mom!)

Two years later when my second son was born, I had a new boss and lost the supportive workplace culture to which I had become accustomed. Without the flexibility and after one too many insensitive, chauvinistic comments, I left the company for a better opportunity in workers’ comp. By now, I had developed a strong personal brand and expertise in various areas of the industry. I was again able to create my own opportunity by leveraging my knowledge of group health and transferring it to workers’ comp to build new programs, develop new products, and to be successful in national sales. Unsolicited job offers were now coming my way. This was a pivotal point in my career and another game changer.

It was at this point that I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and pursue my entrepreneurial passions full time. I launched a successful auditing and consulting business to help payers make better buying decisions with pharmacy benefit managers. Hard work and confidence in my expertise paid off with contracts with blue-chip companies. After two years, however, I received an offer I could not refuse and left my consulting business to run a growing workers’ comp PBM. When I was a child, I never dreamed that I would someday be the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, but with tenacity, a strong foundation of support, and a bit of luck, here I am.

As I noted before, I have very modest roots. Although my parents struggled financially when I was a child, they understood the value of vacation time and always made family trips a priority. Whenever they had the gas money, we would pile in the car and get out of town. These mini vacations were usually only a day or two long but gave us time to connect as a family while exposing us to places outside of our neighborhood. My favorite trips were when we drove down to North Carolina to visit extended family. The stark contrasts between the urban culture of north Boston and the southern lifestyle of my cousins in Asheville always made these trips an adventure. It was during these visits that I began to develop an appreciation and respect for people’s differences. These early experiences shaped who I am, and throughout my life, I have benefited so much by being open-minded and learning from others’ perspectives and experiences.

Be humble. In order to be truly successful, it is essential to know what you don’t know. In other words, recognize that no matter how talented or accomplished you may be, there are always people who have knowledge and special skill sets that you do not possess. One of the keys to success in my career has been to surround myself with talented people who fill in my gaps. In business and in life, each person you meet offers something of value . . . a fresh point of view, a special talent, a pearl of wisdom. Listen and learn from family, friends, colleagues, even strangers—and even when you disagree with them. There are always opportunities to learn and grow.

There are also opportunities to teach. One of the best things about leading a corporation is that it allows me to contribute to other organizations and give back to the industry that has nourished me and made me who I am today. From elevating the stature of women in our industry through the foundation of the Alliance of Women in Workers’ Compensation to contributing to the Workers Compensation Research Group’s (WCRI) valuable research, it is very gratifying to honor those who have helped me over the years by now paying it forward. The additional extracurricular pursuits of developing work-ready programs at my alma mater along with mentoring at-risk teenagers and budding entrepreneurs also keep me energized. My contributions in these arenas will ultimately be what I consider the pinnacle of my career. I know there is much more learning and growing ahead, and that is exciting.

The path to a successful career is a marathon, not a sprint. I have been fortunate to have had both good and bad experiences to learn from, as well as the opportunity to be mentored by several remarkable people. My journey began with going after opportunities that presented themselves early in my career. When I was in my 20s, I pursued the jobs that fortuitously came my way, usually without much thought. I let my intuition guide me to what seemed right at the time and I didn’t worry about the qualifications. As my career progressed, I learned the value of strategic planning and creating my own opportunities within companies with new business plans that created value for the organization. Every step on my path presented a valuable experience for personal and professional growth.

Every person has his or her own definition of individual success. Mine has been balancing my family and my career. I did not always know where my career was headed, but I always knew I wanted to be a mom. I am from a large family, and as my two sons have reached their teenage years, I have developed a profound respect and admiration for my mother’s skill of artfully balancing the demands of four children with a successful career. She was and still is my inspiration and my greatest role model.

It has been said that you can have it all—just not all at once. I think there is some validity to that statement. Just as my career was taking off, I knew the time was also right to start a family because “you’re as young as you feel” does not apply in this situation. I was filled with trepidation over what is a very common concern for working mothers. Would I lose my edge if I put my career on pause to care full time for my children? Would I be able to provide the same value and pick up where I left off when I returned to the workforce? This internal struggle leads to a highly personal choice that so many woman have to make, and I understand and respect my friends’ and colleagues’ decisions to do what is best for themselves and their families.

Primarily driven by the desire to independently provide for my children if I ever needed to, my decision was to continue working after my sons were born. At this point in my career, I had considerable flexibility with my job but I also spent a great deal of time on the road. This presented challenges. Although I had to make some sacrifices, we made it work. As I watch my boys grow into caring, respectful young men, I do not regret my decision.

I have come to realize that success is constructed of many pieces. The foundation of my success was built by doggedness and luck of circumstance and strengthened by hard work. Asking questions, growing my knowledge base, and developing my professional skill set increased my value. Truly appreciating constructive criticism and learning from my mistakes added the next layer of success. Early in my career, my mother told me there would come a time when I would have options and would no longer ever have to worry about getting a job. Midway through my career, I knew I had achieved that level of success. This was another game changer. I had gained the confidence and competence to define and negotiate a new opportunity with a company that was a good cultural fit. My new role helped drive my career to greater heights. Each building block brought different opportunities for learning and solving problems. I discovered my entrepreneurial side and launched a successful auditing business that challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before. I pushed through the obstacles and the feeling of vulnerability that comes with starting a business and having no safety net. The risks are great, but so are the rewards.

My success has been cultivated through a passion for learning and an entrepreneurial spirit. Because of my track record, I found myself in the enviable position of simultaneously fielding unsolicited offers to lead three different firms. I ultimately chose to return to my passion for workers’ comp and accepted my current post at Matrix Healthcare Services (“myMatrixx”). Navigating the growth curve and taking the company to the next level by focusing on what leads to business growth and profitability is very rewarding.

There is not one silver bullet that leads to success. My path to success has been a combination of many parts: the people who have shared their knowledge and guided me as well as those who have trusted me as a colleague and a partner; a strong desire to learn; the risks I have been willing to take; and hard work and determination. Most importantly, my success is fueled by a passion to make a positive difference by sharing what I have learned. I know that I am not better than the next person, but I am better because of the next person.

My advice? Trust your instincts. Know your value. Be bold. Take risks. And never stop learning.