Sandra De Varona

I attribute my success to having the correct person to push me and believe in me. There is a friend that I have who I've been friends with for like 30-something years, and every time I would express how I wanted to go back to school and I wanted to do this and that, they would say 'you can do it, you can do it.' I was told, and I never really believed it, but I was told you have to start small, because you can't start big, because then when you start big, nothing really works out and you're all over the place. So I took that advice and said, you know what, I'm gonna start small, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna see how that works, and then if that works, then I'll continue. I can only handle two things, I'll handle two things instead of four or seven. That has been a big part of my success - having the right person and listening to the right person to guide me. That's been a really big influence.

The best advice I've ever received is don't give up. If you want to do something, continue striving and try to accomplish it. I was kind of becoming a procrastinator, and that was really never my DNA, but I think you also become that way when you associate yourself with people that are kind of like that. So the advice was, don't give up, don't give up. No matter what you're going through, just don't give up. Continue. You're gonna do it, you're gonna be successful. Just basically don't give up. That's been the advice from the good core people that have had a big impact in my life.

I would say, as advice, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. Definitely never give up. Always, always, always know that you can do whatever you put your mind to do, and it might not be in a time record of like everybody else. It's not everything is supposed to be according to how life, I guess, has an expectation of you do this after college, you do this after high school, you do this after you have a child. It all comes together when you are ready as a person. But it's not how you start, it's always how you finish. And that's really been my go-to in my life. I didn't do it then, but I can do it now, and I'll finish, I'll accomplish what I want. So that would be my advice.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is a lot of lackadaisical personalities going around. Nobody wants to really do anything, and everybody wants to take the credit for it, and I don't like that. People do have to put in their time and do their responsibilities. I've experienced more and more that it's a lackadaisical attitude, I'll do this just because it's the bare minimum, and I'm still gonna get the point across versus you that are gonna do A, B, C, and D and a whole bunch of other things, but I did less than you and I'm still getting the credit. That I don't like. As far as opportunities, I think technology plays a humongous part in our role here in our profession. You do have to kind of evolve with what's going on. If you have access to trainings to get you more knowledge on certain programs and certain things that will benefit your career, definitely do that. Continue growing in your own field by form of some sort of education, trying to find how you can better yourself and enhance your knowledge.

The values that are most important to me in my work and personal life are definitely respect and self-respect. Definitely give yourself value and know that you might not be a professional, or a doctor, or a lawyer, but you do have values, so don't ever think you're lesser than anybody. And always be on time. And just be professional. You don't have to treat anybody disrespectful, you don't have to be mean to anybody to get the message across.