I woke up this morning in California, over 2000 miles away from my home in Indiana, ready to serve a group of women who have been waiting too long for real solutions that are made to ensure their safety. As I face another day of challenges, missing my kids at home stings even more than usual but I have to refocus and remind myself that there are millions of women who need our solutions and I will be with my family very soon. My husband being at my side and fighting this battle with me makes my longing for home and family a bit more bearable.
My journey to make a lasting difference has come with so many challenges. I have been fighting what seems to be an impossible battle from the moment I started a business with no savings. After every last bit of savings we had was used to keep me alive in my battle with breast cancer, my commitment to building a company that is about more than just profit has provided challenge after challenge. As desperately as I have needed funds, I have had to refuse venture capital, because the company I am building is not about cashing in for millions of dollars in a few years. It's about serving people, providing solutions, offering good jobs, and making a positive impact on our community for generations to come.
I have had the privilege of personally providing workwear solutions to hundreds of women across the globe. I wish everyone could personally see and feel the impact women have experienced from having workwear that finally makes them feel comfortable, confident, and safe. As we traveled to plants all over the globe, I got to see the magical transformation of every woman we served. In every single plant we visited, they expected to be disappointed and devalued but they left feeling valued and seen for the first time by their employer.
This is what keeps me going on the scariest of days. I'm not sure I could keep fighting these fears I face everyday without first facing the fear of death. I am still in the trenches fighting for the capital Cosawove Workwear™ needs to grow and serve the women who have been underserved for too long. There are days when the problems seem too big and too numerous and I want to stay in bed, pull the covers over my head, and hide from the world. It is right there in my comfortable, safe, warm bed that I make a choice. I make a choice at that moment to get out of bed, put one foot in front of the other, prioritize what needs to be done, and tackle one problem at a time.
Fear holds me down, it tells me that I can't, it tells me that I'm not good enough, it makes me question myself, and honestly, it keeps me from making the difference I was meant to make in this world. What am I afraid of? Am I afraid of failure? What is failure? What exactly am I afraid of? What is more scary than dying? I was almost removed form this earth permanently. I experienced more fear than I had ever imagined I could feel and in that moment, I choose to fight. When I didn't have the strength to get to the bathroom on my own, when death was on the horizon, when the pain was so bad that I was on the curled up on the floor sobbing, when my hair was falling out and the bone pain from the chemo was so bad I couldn't move, I chose to FIGHT. I chose to tackle one challenge at a time and FIGHT FEAR head on.
I am grateful that I faced death. It gave me the courage to not let fear stop me. Fear has the ability every single second of every single day to keep me in my warm, cozy bed, waving a white flag. Facing death and choosing to fight fear on the darkest days gives me the courage to fight the daily battles that are needed to build a legacy with Cosawove Workwear™, a legacy that will bring real change to the women's PPE industry, provide great jobs and future employee ownership, and make a positive impact on our community.