Case

In 2006, I sold my stock photography business to the world’s greatest and most successful entrepreneur of all time, Bill Gates. I became a multimillionaire and am living proof that the American dream is alive and well.

 This is how I open my speeches. This is my perfect happy ending that followed a long and very trying time. But just how did I get to this point? What did I do that catapulted me into the economic top 10% of Americans and what exactly is my American Dream? What is it that I can tell you that will help you to get to live your dream?

The underlying idea is that I want it all and I am set on getting it, too. This should be your mantra, too. With that mindset, I did what I had to do to accomplish my goals. I refuse to believe there is something I can’t do. I know I don't know everything and will have to work hard to master a new subject – but in my mind, I believe that everything is possible. I take risks – even when I am afraid. Or as Maria Shriver said "If you don't feel fear you don't need courage."

In 1991 at age 27 I found the man of my dreams and I thought I had hit the jackpot. This man had only one problem – he lied. Within six weeks, he proposed and I got pregnant and married. America entered a long, tough recession. I was laid off a couple of months later. With a six-month-old baby and a very quickly deteriorating marriage, I had no choice but to go into business for myself. Things continued to fall apart quickly, natural disasters followed and all of a suddenly in 1994 I am a single mother of a baby going through a divorce, with a business that had no clients and I was living in a friends condo that was going into foreclosure with $300 in my bank account.

I fought for my survival throughout a seemingly endless decade of bad luck and tragedies. But even when faced with hardship, the realities of being alone and broke I was determined that I was not going to be defined by the things that kept going wrong. I firmly and stubbornly believed there had to be something better out there that would make it worthwhile in the end.

Just when I thought things could not get any worse and desperate I wrote a letter to the President and asked for help.  September 11th had destroyed the remaining parts of my business and I needed money to make this new business idea happen that I had come up with. But my bad luck was not over yet, my father died of Pancreatic cancer in Germany and while I am burying him my office staff is served in Los Angeles a notice. Now I am facing being thrown out of the house and I am not even there to respond!

 My defining moment happened that day. I remember falling to my knees raising my fist and screaming at God. I told him that I was going to refuse - REFUSE to believe that this all there was going to be for me. I was just not going to go bankrupt over the funeral and the joke would not and could not be on me after all I went through.

While I could not see how this could possibly have a happy ending and how it would shape up, I had decided that I was not going to accept this as my outcome. It simple could not be.

I returned, settled with the landlord and received a response from the White House. Shortly thereafter I secured a Government backed loan. In short succession I turned profitable and became the leading global provider in my industry. Providing celebrity homes, architectural and living well photographs to magazines, book publishers and advertisers around the world.

The story gets an even happier ending when I became a multi – millionaire by selling my business to Bill Gates. I call myself a woman who wants it all and gets it, too for good reasons – I am living proof that my concepts and ideas work.

I have taken these life lessons and transformed them into my “Want It All and Get It, Too” programs.

If you have a tough time to utilize the power of positive thinking or the law of attraction and can’t think or feel great, begin by first stabilizing where you are. Think, "this is as bad as it is going to get." The next thought you think is "I want to be better" or "I want this situation to get better." You continue to think thoughts that you can actually believe in. This is where the power of The Gradual Improvement Method lies. No screaming matches in your head, no frustrations over not being able to do it, find something you can think that will gradually get you there. Until you can utilize the Law of Attraction.


Second, I recommend the use of KARL. I call it affectionately the man you can always rely on to help you out. KARL stands for know, accept, relax and live. This method is to be applied daily when you begin to feel overwhelmed and have trouble to stay in the present. Know where you are right now, accept that as your reality and don't judge it. Take a deep breath and relax, it's neither good nor bad, it just is and it too, will pass. Now that you are back in the present remind yourself that you live here today and live a little right now.


The third aspect is the knowledge that everything happens in due time, a concept that I call ego-RHYTHM.  In the defining years, usually from 25-40 years old it is best to set a main focus and do that one thing best. You let the rest of your life happen. For example if you are a new mom, focus on being primarily a mom and not on your career or other things you have not accomplished yet. In my book “Women Who Want It All and Get It, Too” I outline specifically how you can figure out where you are and which rhythm you are in currently. This way you will no longer look at your future as this big mountain to climb but a journey that is broken down in bite size increments which makes everything a lot more manageable.

 A healthy balance