Courtney Hill

I attribute my success to my dad, Gary Hill, my mom, and to God. My dad was a renowned salesman in Arkansas who was featured in the 50 Over 50 magazine and won many awards throughout his career. He gave me my work ethic he believed you get up, you go to work, and you always have to stay one step ahead to make it in this world.

Even two or three days before he passed away, he was still trying to work. When I was struggling through school while working full-time, raising two kids, and traveling constantly for my son’s baseball, my dad would always tell me, “Oh yeah, you’re gonna do it. You absolutely can.” He truly pushed me through.

I had one semester left when he passed away. I remember sitting in the hospital room with him when it was just the two of us, and he looked at me and said, “You’re gonna promise me right now that not only will you graduate, you’ll walk.” I honestly wasn’t going to walk because I thought at my age there was no point, but he insisted. I did and I decorated my graduation cap for him and walked across that stage for my dad.

My mom also played a huge role in shaping who I am. She made sure we were raised in church, taught us strong values, faith, integrity, and the importance of treating people right. Between both of my parents, I learned the meaning of hard work, ethics, perseverance, and faith.

My kids were also a huge motivation for me. They’re older now, and hearing them tell me they were proud of me meant everything. That support kept me going during some very hard moments.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without all of them.

The best career advice I ever received came from my dad, who I lost a couple years ago very suddenly. He told me that you can never fail. You might think you failed, but you can never fail. There's always something to be learned from what you might consider a failure, and you can take that to the next level and learn from it, and then excel.

Education is huge. It's a lot easier to get it when you're younger than when you're older. I think it would have been a lot easier to get my degree at a younger age than at my age, but I did do it, so I feel like it is a little bit more special maybe. Do your research, really learn. Never stop learning. That's the biggest thing for me. There's always something to be learned, so never stop learning because it keeps your mind fresh.

The good thing with my degree in business management is there's such a wide scope of opportunities. I can work in the industry I'm in now, or I could go back into the medical or health field. There are so many broad areas - accounting, human resources, banking. It really is beneficial and opens so many doors for you. I'm not just lumped into one specific path. I've even been approached about maybe starting to do some pharmaceutical sales and shifting to that. The fact I have my bachelor's degree in business management just opens so many doors where I have more options. My son is actually going to get the same degree I have in my bachelor's because it's such a wide open field for you.

Core values with me are a lot about ethics, especially in the medical field where ethical things have to be done and guidelines have to be followed, especially safety-wise. If things aren't followed, somebody gets hurt. Even where I'm at now, there are OSHA guidelines, and if they're not followed, someone could die because with electricity, it takes one little mishap and then it's not normally just a little burn, it's something very serious. To me, it's guidelines, protocols, ethics - that's very tedious on my end and has to be followed to the T. There's not really any gray area, it's black or white.