Tabitha Gott

I attribute my success to my 25 years at MBNA, where I worked in the executive offices and learned critical skills in fraud, credit, human resources, and project management. Understanding the budget and how things function was critical - if you didn't have the money, you couldn't spend it, and learning how to move it around and understand the financial side was very important. But honestly, it really started even earlier with the Masonic fraternity organization I belonged to, Job's Daughters. As you grew through that organization, you learned the basics of different responsibilities - like being responsible for collecting newspaper articles and putting them together, picking a charity and setting a goal and managing your goal to get to the goal, or managing the big sister program. Those roles and responsibilities helped grow those skills that then turned into what I would say made going into my career easier. Everything came together and has really just given me the opportunity to do what I do now and enjoy it. I also believe strongly in measurable goals - everything has measurable goals, because if you don't know where you're going, you can't create a plan to get there. The plan is always amendable, but the plan establishes it. And I have a tremendous team - my vice mayor Dr. Corrine Upshur, and my council members who are very smart, and together we make a really dynamic team.

Be honest, appreciate the environment around you, and understand what you're talking about. Create a structured plan so that you know that you're hitting the goals to be successful for yourself, and quite honestly, if you don't think you're the type of person that can do that, this isn't for you. If you take on a plan to go into a community and change something, like put speed bumps in, and you don't put speed bumps in and you're held accountable for that, what that does to your reputation, what that does to your peace of mind, what that does to the family that you have in the area or your friends, that's destructive. And it turns into more of a quest to be accepted than the ability to do the right thing for the right reason. If you're not organized, if you think that you're gonna go into politics and you're gonna have an aide that's going to do all your work - I have the best assistant in the world, and there are things that she does spectacularly well, but the one thing I will never ever let her do for me is take the fall because of my ignorance. I think accountability and honesty, accountability, and responsibility are the most important attributes that you really need to have in any leadership policy position, but especially in politics. Be organized, be structured, know what your goals are, understand, and ask questions, God forbid. You're not here to recreate the wheel, you're not here to start traditions. You're here to make a difference in what's going on in the world that we live in, and there's enough crazies going on. You just have to do your part. There's no one politician, there's no one leader that's gonna do this alone. Thinking that you're going to go in and change the world is crazy.

The values most important to me are honesty, accountability, and responsibility. I open almost every speech with 'I don't lie, I don't steal, I don't cheat, and I know where I live.' I don't want anybody to ask me a question and think that I'm brushing them off, because I'm the first one to say, I don't know the answer to your question, but I can find out the answer to your question, because if I'm not telling you the truth, I'm not doing my job. Responsibility, measurable goals, and being responsible for the choices that I make are huge. And making sure that I include and embrace everyone - I don't care what your walk of life is, I don't care what your sexual preference is, I don't care, because goodness only knows it's not up for me to decide that, because everybody's attributes are so unique. As long as people have measurable goals and we get things done, because I don't sit and spin wheels well. Accountability, responsibility, and measurable goals - as long as you're accountable for the choices that you make and you understand what the goal is and we have a plan, we're good. The hardest thing in the world as a female doing this for me is the part that I can't control, because if I can control it, it's okay, I can correct it, it's okay.