Patty Quessenberry

I think it's because a long time ago, I set my goals that I wanted to accomplish and do more with my life. I'm actually the youngest out of 6 kids, and I'm one of only 2 of us that actually graduated from college. I knew that I set my goal, and it took me a while to get it all done, but once I did it, I was so proud of myself. That's the other thing - you've got to love yourself. You have to love yourself and give yourself time to learn more, or to relax, or whatever, but if you don't love yourself, how are you going to love somebody else? Years ago when I was young, I might not have been that way so much - I was just eager to do and go and succeed and accomplish more. But after a time, you kind of season out and you see that you are important. Your health is important, your physical and emotional happiness is important, you know? That way, you can help more people.

Don't give up on things. Don't be afraid to ask, and if someone says no, then build on that to do more.

If you want to come out of retirement, don't be afraid to come out of retirement and step into something new, something challenging. We're never too old to learn. Just because you think you're one of the senior citizens doesn't mean you don't have something to still give to the business industry, or to your community, or whatever. And I want to say this - just because of your age, or things are financially struggling, or whatever, don't think that you can't finish your college education if that's what you want to do. I know now that college education isn't actually a requirement anymore. It helps in certain fields you want to go into, but trade school, I believe in that. I believe in internship or whatever, and working your way into a business. But if that's what you want to do, go after it, you know?

One of the challenges is that my boss is very high energy and he comes up with ideas all the time, and I can't sometimes keep up with it. But I think over the year, he and I, he figured me out. I told him, I know you're my boss, but I'm going to talk to you as a friend, and you need to know, I'm not a young person coming out of school doing this. I've been around the business industry, I have a degree, and I'm older, and there's some things that you're teaching me that maybe I don't know, but I'm learning. He gets in such a rush sometimes and wants me to learn at a certain pace or do it just this way, but I'm not afraid to speak back to him, and I don't speak disrespectfully, I just, you know, let's talk kind of situation. I think you should do that. I know when I was at Kraft, some of my managers would encourage that. They said, we want you to manage up too, we want you to give us feedback. And when I got into management, I did the same thing with those subordinates under me - give me that feedback.

A standard of ethics and honesty are most important to me, but also to be kind and caring to others. I have a very big heart, and I love everybody, and when I meet people, I get attached, and they know that I care about them. I'm so known in our community - my grandkids call me the mayor or the president of Ozark because I'm so involved in so many places. But I think that's an asset that I have, is the caring heart and wanting others to succeed. I also want to share that when nobody was there, God was always there for me. There were times when I thought I couldn't go any further, or why, Lord, why? He was always there to take my hand and pull me up and keep me going. I lean on that now so much, and it makes me happy, because I know he's been through my rollercoaster ride kind of life. He's been with me through it all when nobody else might not be.