MONIQUE BONNER

I attribute my success to keeping God first and foremost in my life. My family has been absolutely everything to me - I have such a great, very supportive family that's always there. When I went through cancer, my sisters both work in the government, and they went with me through my first surgery and stayed with me, then went with me to my first chemo treatment and just alternated with me through that process. I have three or four sisters and one brother, and two sisters live here in D.C. with me. My mom, my dad, everybody, my kids, my children - although they were little at the time, they still stayed positive with me. My church family as well - at that time we get paired up with a prayer partner, and when I found out I had cancer, she had just found out a month before me. Without my immediate family, church family, and my kids, I don't know where I'd be. I knew that for me, although I had a great family, no one was going to take care of my kids the way I would, so I just pushed forward for them. I wanted to get them to where they need to be, and if this was my time, then I'd go, but just let me see them to success. And they're all very successful now. If you don't have God and family, and then something to live for which is my children, you're gonna succumb to depression or sadness about your situation. You gotta speak life into it, you gotta move it, you gotta succeed in it. That's how I've done with everything in my life, with my job, everything.

You can always go higher in this career. Never stop. Keep going. Stay focused, make good choices. If it doesn't feel right, then it's not right, so don't go down that road. Listen and be attentive. Pay attention. Definitely treat people the way you want to be treated in this field - it's very important because sometimes when you call to a place and you're upset, you have people screaming and hollering. I mean, I get cursed out mostly every day, but I now know when I call and I'm a customer, I now know how that person on the other end feels. Again, it still goes back to treating people the way you want to be treated. If this is the path you want to take as far as helping people, being positive, even with the frantic ones, even the overly excited ones, this is the job for you. Customer service goes everywhere you go - it's always with you. It's about the person that you're dealing with, and that's in relationships, friendships, family, everything. It's still a customer service base that you have to speak to them with love and kindness.