Penny Scarborough

I attribute my success to my parents and my brother because of the way they raised me, and the values they instilled in me: the integrity and the grit, the honesty, the punctuality, being honest, being truthful, being transparent. My parents expected more out of us than anybody. We had to do more, learn more, and be able to explain more two others m. If someone walked up to us and asked us a question, we'd better know the answer to it. You got two different kinds of parents - the ones whose kids don't do anything, sit and watch TV and paint their fingernails, do their hair and their makeup. And then you got parents that expect their kids to work and show them how to work and become productive adults. My parents expected more. That's where I got my work ethic from.

The best career advice I ever received was from my dad: Do what you say and say what you mean. Don't say anything that you cannot do. Do what you say, and say what you mean. If you tell someone I'm gonna be there at 3 o'clock, if you can't be there, call them and let them know. My dad also taught me to set your watch 5 minutes fast, that way you'll never be late. His watch was 5 minutes fast, because if you go by that time, you'll be there when you're supposed to be there. That's how you build your integrity, that's how you get your name. That's how we got our name. We never advertised, we didn't have big splashes everywhere, and we were never in a lack for work. We were turning work down, actually.

Always think through every situation that could possibly happen. Don't just answer something off the cuff, spur of the moment, just blah blah blah, just to have something to say, because you'll end up eating your words if you don't look at things and try to make sure of exactly what is going on before you answer. You can change your mind if something comes up, but don't just say something to save face because when you have to walk it back that's when you lose your integrity and people lose their trust in you. Be honest, and if you need a couple of days to think about something, your client will respect you a lot more if you say, okay, give me a couple of days to research this, and I will call you back either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I'll let you know exactly what's going on, but I'm not going to answer you right off the top of my head, because there's a few different things that could be happening. And don't ever, ever, ever say something you can't back up, but don't back down when you know you're right.

The challenge is that I was in a bad auto accident about 5 years ago, and it took a while to get over that. Then I had another emergency surgery at the end of last year, like in November or December, and I'm getting over that. I'm 58 years old and in the industry I grew up in, I've had some injuries in my lifetime. I also had to apply for disability, but at the same time, I can still build my own brand. You can always come back and rebrand yourself. You don't have to be what people tell you to be. You need to be what you want to be.

What's most important to me is building my consultant business, getting my books done where they can be on the market, and getting done with my bachelor's degree so I'll have that piece of paper to back up that 45 years, so it's substantiated. Because I can tell people I've got 45 years, but if they ask if I have a bachelor's degree and I say no, well, never mind, there goes that job. The values my parents instilled in me are integrity, grit, honesty, punctuality, being truthful, and being transparent. Sunday is God's day, that's it. We worked every day of the week except Sunday, because that's God's day.