Lucy Gutierrez

I attribute my success to a lot of drive and my desire to impact my daughter's life. I am a mother, and my daughter is [AGE]. I want to impact her life where she looks up to me in every decision that I make, and everything that I do with heart in the community, and everything that I do for work, and everything that we do as a family. Even though it's long hours, it's tenacious, and it's a very difficult job managing operations that never end - restaurants have to eat and receive food - I know that I'm leaving a legacy behind for them, and I'm working extremely hard for my family and also for myself.

The best career advice I ever received came from my mother. She has always taught me one thing: how you project yourself that day in the morning, that's how your day is going to be. That's the biggest advice I can give anyone. Never look back, even if things are not in your favor that day. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel if you have a positive outlook. If you see it negatively, you're not going to see that there is a why and that there is a reason. Every day when we come across new challenges at Sysco or in life, when they tell you that you have to do a certain task, ask yourself why. There has to be a reason - oh, I see why they're doing that, they're lining up for a better this or a better that. It's how you look at things. My mother always told me that how you drive your day since the morning, that's how your day is going to end. So you've got to be very positive, even when we don't see anything.

In the food service industry, everything is about relationships. Obviously, the competition being number one food service distributor also comes with the misconception that you are the biggest, so you don't care for the smaller ones. And that is not true. That is something that we are working extremely hard on - creating those relationships with our customers and showing them that we do value each customer, whether they're small or big. We're here to drive their menus, create value, and bring them value. That's something that is hard, because when you have a misconception like 'oh, you're so big that you are not going to care for me, I'm small,' that is not true. That's something we're working really hard on now. We are in negotiations of purchasing Restaurant Depot, and we want to continue helping that community be able to afford items at a lower cost.

Titles are important because it's how you escalate and how you progress, but it's not everything. It's about the impact, the representation, and how you make others feel. How capable you are of making them feel important in this world. Being impactful, whether it's at work or at home, is what matters most to me.