Lydia Lauren Hamilton

I attribute my success 1000% to my parents and my family. My family and the support system I have are everything. I was raised by my mother, who opened the first Walmart in Miami and has been there for 30 years. She's a powerhouse at Walmart. My mom is like 4'9" and walks with her hands behind her back when she goes into a Walmart that's not hers, just observing. She's so little, and when she talks, everybody moves and listens to her. I saw that power and that dynamic, and I use that as motivation. I learned from her, and that's what made me succeed and got me into the doors that I got through. Even though I'm little, not even 5 feet tall, even though I'm a woman, I don't speak Spanish even though I live in Miami, I still made it out. I'm the only girl of four brothers, so I'm very tough. I'm not the easiest person to deal with - I have my struggles because my 30s was very rocky when I got diagnosed with bipolar disorder. But I have my family, and we have each other. We do our best to survive. This is a team effort, a symbiotic relationship. Me, my mom, and my brothers supporting us - we put our blood, sweat, and tears into our comfort. We're just getting by with today's economy, but we have each other.

The best career advice I ever received is don't give up and know your why. Know why you have to grind the way you do, why you have to work those long hours, why you're not home every day or every night. Know your why, and mine is my family. Someone else's will be their kids, someone's will be their mom, but mine is absolutely my parents and my brothers. Once you know your why, everything else is just extra. That's it - don't give up and know your why.

Be fearless, be courageous, and believe in yourself. Enjoy it. Embrace the autonomy, embrace the future. It's a field a lot of women don't think about, and they should. More women should be dominating all these fields that males are in. That's the point - introducing them to something they never thought about before, because we need to get some women into this field to change things. It's rough, it's cutthroat, it's not easy, and we need some women to come in and smooth around the edges. We can't leave it all to the men. When it comes to women, you look at them, you have no idea their background or what they're capable of, but then when you see them work, it tells a completely different story. I like to impress people that way and motivate them that way.

Family, efficiency, and teamwork are 100% the most important values to me. Creating a healthy environment, a positive environment, and a productive environment. I like to see things move. We have to work so hard to succeed in this world, but we have a family. We have people that need us, we have people we take care of. I still live with my parents, and this is a team effort, a symbiotic relationship. Me, my mom, and my brothers supporting us - we put our blood, sweat, and tears into our comfort. We're just getting by with today's economy, but we have each other and we do our best to survive. When you've been at the point of survival like my parents were when we were younger, you don't want to be there anymore. You want to keep going up, you want to build something. We don't have generational wealth, but I will be working over the next 35 years to leave my family's legacy behind. It's not just my children - I want our story to be told because it is a beautiful story with a lot of heart.