When Reinvention Becomes Urgent: A Story About Strength, Strategy, and the Will to Be Heard
Sometimes ambition doesn’t slow down, even when life does.
This is the story of a woman who built an empire, faced a devastating diagnosis, and came to me not for sympathy but for strategy. She wasn’t looking for someone to save her. She wanted someone to stand beside her as she kept going, even when her words began to fail. What follows is a reminder of what’s possible when you refuse to disappear.
A few months ago, I was auctioned off to raise money for my favorite charity. The prize was lunch with me to pick my brain. The woman who won showed up and told me she had been diagnosed with FTD, the same disorder Bruce Willis has.
She has been the CEO of a large manufacturing company for 30 years and is now passing it down to her son because she’s starting to have trouble speaking. She had just come back from six months of physical therapy out of state. But the reason she wanted to meet wasn’t about her company. It was about her side passion.
She has been writing movies and television projects for years. Some have already been picked up and are currently in development. But now, with her speech declining, she needs someone in the industry to help her pitch, coach her, and be her voice when she no longer can. She’s not giving up. She’s evolving. She’s pressing forward anyway.
This isn’t a story about loss. It’s a story about what it takes to keep creating no matter what.
