Melissa Horne, MHA

I attribute my success to never giving up. It's a mentality of always striving for the next goal. Once you reach a goal, you set a new one, and you keep going. You don't settle. I believe in continuously pushing forward and not being satisfied with just reaching one milestone, but always looking ahead to what's next and maintaining that drive to keep achieving more.

The best career advice I've ever received is to not wait for an opportunity to come to you - you have to seek it out. If there's a path that you see yourself in, then you research it as much as you can, and you find the individuals that you can connect with. Every position I've ever had has always come from connections, and it's not just about knowing someone casually. It's about me reaching out to those individuals by researching who the decision makers are, and then putting myself out there to schedule the meeting, to talk to them, or to stay in their inbox or their LinkedIn. To sum it up: don't wait for the opportunity to come to you, you seek it out.

The advice I would give to young women entering my industry would be to really develop their inner self and figure out what it is that they're passionate about on their own, that they can stand true to. Don't let anyone, whether that's a relationship, a family member, or a friend, sway you away from that passion. Find that passion early and develop the skills to propel you to that next level. It's about building that strong foundation within yourself that no one can shake.

In my field specifically, I think the biggest challenges are financial constraints of health systems and what they're putting money towards versus what is going to ultimately impact patient care positively. Health systems see the initial sticker shock of equipment purchases and immediately turn their head from it, versus looking at the long-term benefit of doing that purchase and how it's going to help the health system and the patients long term. They're cutting corners in so many different departments and aspects that they think that's the good decision long-term, but ultimately, it's costing them more money by not making those investments. The equipment can be very expensive, but the short-sighted financial decisions end up being more costly in the long run.

The values that are most important to me in my work and personal life are integrity, trust, self-confidence, and faith. These four values guide everything I do, both professionally and personally, and they form the foundation of how I approach my relationships, my business, and my life decisions.