Patience Cormier

I attribute my success to sheer willpower and changing my perspective on time. When I look back at getting my master's degree while working full-time as an auditor during busy season and raising young children, I don't know how I made it through. I would go to sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning and be up by 7 a.m., spending most of my Saturdays and Sundays doing homework while still providing great client service and cooking amazing meals for my family. That experience changed my perspective on how much time I have in a day. Before, I thought I didn't have time to do all these different things, but now I realize we have a full 24 hours in a day and it's all about what we choose to spend our time doing. I think so many times we calculate what could go wrong, and we don't take enough time to calculate what could go right. If we just change that thought process and believe in ourselves, amazing things can happen.

I would tell young women to not be afraid of what the future may hold. Don't calculate what could go wrong - take the time to calculate what could go right. Change that thought process and believe in yourself. I hit an invisible glass ceiling as a woman without a college degree in the commercial real estate world, where it was just a good old boys network. But I didn't want ceilings anymore and didn't want my education background to stop me from achieving things I knew I was capable of doing. We're breaking the mold from being just a male-dominated society. There are a lot of women in leadership now, starting their own businesses, and we all need to have a voice because we do have voices. We need more voices in business. I'm raising my daughter and empowering her to be exactly who she wants to be, and I want to be a good example for her and help other women feel like they have a voice too.

What drives me most is encouraging others and helping people believe in themselves. I loved being an academic coach and tutor because there were so many people I coached who didn't believe in themselves and that they could graduate. They were thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and I would ask them, what if it all goes well? What if it goes right? When you change that thought process, amazing things happen. My most important goal is for my story to hopefully empower and encourage other women to go back to school, chase after their dreams, or start that business. I want to help other small businesses, nonprofits, and women so we can all feel like we have a voice. I'm also focused on being a good example for my daughter, empowering her to be exactly who she wants to be. Words have power - they speak life and death - so if we're speaking positively and believing in ourselves, we can achieve what we're capable of doing.