Leading with Heart

Dream Audaciously. Love Fearlessly. Play Fully.

By Lori DaNae Busche

When INFLUENTIAL WOMEN invited me to reflect on my career, values, and success, I found myself looking back over 60 years of becoming. I thought about the beautiful moments, the hard-earned lessons, and the times I trusted myself enough to follow a possibility before I knew where it would lead.

What emerged was a reminder of how I want to live: being fully myself, dreaming audaciously, loving fearlessly, and making room to play.

As the oldest girl in a family of 15 children, I learned early how to nurture others and keep people happy. Those qualities served me well, but they also made it easy to put my own voice last.

Early in my corporate career, a woman told me I needed to “grow a pair of balls!”

Her words were blunt, but they stayed with me. As I grew into leadership, I began to understand that compassion could exist alongside directness, confidence, and accountability. I could care about someone and still have an uncomfortable conversation. I could honor their needs while also respecting my own.

I didn’t need to lose my caring heart. I needed to include myself in that care.

That lesson continues to shape my life. Loving fearlessly means having the courage to be honest—to let people know who I am, what matters to me, and where my boundaries are. There is vulnerability in allowing ourselves to be known without constantly adjusting to earn acceptance.

It’s also where our gifts have room to emerge.

If I could offer young women one piece of advice, it would be to stay curious about who you are. Pay attention to what excites you, the ideas you keep returning to, and the qualities someone may have called “too much.” Your unconventional perspective may become your greatest contribution.

My own creativity has led me into entrepreneurship, where I’m learning to give my ideas structure. Dreaming comes naturally to me. Building a sustainable business asks me to follow through, make decisions, and keep learning when the path feels uncertain.

Writing my book, The Space Between Goodbye and Forever, taught me something about that balance. Initially, I felt overwhelmed by everything I would need to figure out. When I gave myself permission to focus on the writing, I could finally begin. People, resources, and opportunities helped me take the next steps along the way.

I’m learning that an audacious dream deserves both trust and action. We can begin before we know every detail.

And we can enjoy ourselves as we learn.

Joy matters to me. So do laughter, curiosity, and the freedom to try something without needing to be immediately good at it. Play helps me connect with people, loosen my grip on an outcome, and discover possibilities I might otherwise miss.

“Life is a playground for remembering who you are” has become my guiding philosophy. It invites me to participate fully: to create, contribute, speak honestly, and remain open to surprise.

At 60, success means living in closer alignment with what I value—love, kindness, respect, authenticity, responsibility, and joy. It means leaving people and places a little better than I found them while allowing my own life to be meaningful and fun.

I’m grateful these questions brought me back to that. There are still dreams I want to follow and parts of myself I have yet to discover.

I intend to meet them with an open heart—and a willingness to play.