Cindy Prescott Fuller

In a word: education. I am a huge advocate of getting a college degree - not to make money necessarily - but for its pure value. I finished my degree when I was in my early thirties and working full time as a pharmacy technician in a hospital. I have to laugh because when I was finishing my last class my professor said: "Well, this is it." I exclaimed: "What do you mean! I'm not ready to stop." That's how much I loved University of Baltimore and the professors I had. I attribute that to being an adult. It adds a different perspective. At any rate as it turned out, that degree ended up increasing my salary five-fold.

I also attribute my success to my personality. I enjoyed bringing humor to the job and most everyone appreciated it. As part of my effort to education people on our complex data warehouse, I created something called "Do You Know?" that I send out in email to all end-users. I'd ask a question about a data element or business concept and then present three answer options - two were funny and one was the actual answer. Then in a brief paragraph I would elaborate on the topic. It became wildly popular. Scores of people would reach out and say that it made their day. It made me happy. You never know the influence you can have on people unless you meet them where they are.

The best advice I received was more of a challenge. I was working at a home healthcare company mixing I.V. therapies and chemotherapy. My pharmacist manager handled the paperwork while I did the mixing. When I had finished and returned to the office he would often be staring into space and I'd have to help with the paperwork. One day I got angry and we had words. He said: "You can always go to school and get a degree like I did and make the big bucks. I'm paid to think." And I tell you the truth - that evening when I got home, I called several universities for them to mail me catalogs (this was before everything was online). I needed that push, that challenge.

Honestly? This may sound cliche, but it's true, nonetheless. Be true to yourself. It doesn't matter what line of work you are in. Organizations have a way of changing you. It's okay to be hungry and want advancement but never sacrifice your principles and values to do it. It may not win you any prizes, but you'll be able to love yourself. And, incidentally, many others will respect you for it.

In any field, the biggest challenge has to be A.I. (artificial intelligence). Organizations have all jumped on the A.I. bandwagon because it's new and exciting. They hope it can also save them money, which is always the end game. So, it's probably going to be important for people to have some knowledge of it in order to stay relevant.

I'm retired now but when I was working it was important for me to help people. In a large corporation I often wondered if what I was doing mattered. When I worked in a hospital, I knew that I was helping people - it was fairly obvious. But a corporation whose primary goal is making money? That's a different animal. I realized that even though my colleagues weren't sick, they had jobs to complete and they often needed my knowledge to do it. Whenever I got frustrated with the politics I would think of that. In my mind I transformed the notion of working for the company to one of working for my colleagues.

In my personal life my faith is important to me. I like to tell people: "I believe in a relationship with G-d, not religion." I think that relationship is a forever journey. I'm always contemplating, trying to get closer, trying to sort truth from accepted teachings. I try not to be preachy. I only discuss it when the conversation comes up. I hope my behavior speaks louder than my words. I think that's what we're supposed to do - reflect G-d's love in the world. Do I always succeed? No. But I have to try again every day.