My Story
I was born in Walnut Creek Kaiser hospital in 1956 on October 16
We lived in a small house in the middle of a walnut Orchard that my dad had built.
Most importantly I learned very early that my dad could build anything.
On the weekends we were always doing some sort of home improvements.
In 1967 my parents purchased 5 acres near Lake Camanche and every weekend we were up there doing some projects, but always rewarded with a trip to the lake.
I learned many skills from my dad and to this day can do just about anything I decide to do.
Before I got my drivers license, I started working at the Shell station on Ignacia Valley Road in Walnut Creek right across from Bart. Of course there was no bart back then.
Making money was always important to me and I had no problem working for it.
Back in the 70s gas was all full service, we checked your oil, did your windows and filled you up.
I really enjoyed greeting the customers and making my boss proud.
Pretty sure my dad instilled that in me by always praising my work.
I never had any problem approaching customers, starting conversations or building relationships.
I suppose I developed that on that first job and it has served me well.
I was always very comfortable interacting with customers.
As my careers progressed I came to realize that my intelligence was a real gift that I could use to advance myself.
Work smarter not harder became my moto.
My sales success comes from really understanding my products first, so I’m not selling you anything but educating you about the products.
I was one of the first tele-commuters, back in the 90s, and really improved my productivity by working in my home office several hours a day.
And of course I was selling the technology I was using.
By 2006 I had my own company and was 100% work from home.
And selling the surgery I had learned about and gone through.
I had several jobs in Walnut Creek also as a tow truck driver for AAA in Lafayette and in 1978 my sister called and said the phone company had a problem with affirmative action, they had too many women!
So I went down to San Jose and filled out an application and went to work for the phone company in an office full of women.
Going to work at the phone company was a huge cultural shock for me.
Going from being in a truck all day by myself most of the time to being in an office full of service representatives with a supervisor looking over my shoulder at all times and literally having to ask to get up and go to the bathroom was horrible.
I hated it, but set my sights on getting out and into the field side of the company.
I persevered and got outside after just three years in that hell.
At that point I only wanted to do my wonderful new job and be a field technician for the rest of my life.
It wasn’t until many years later that I started to feel like being blue collar and going to work in jeans wasn’t really what I wanted.
It took me eight more years to achieve my promotion to Account Executives.
Then after almost getting laid off in a force reduction I decided I had better get a degree to secure my future.
5 years of night school and a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree did the trick.
I never imagined I would accomplish any of this!
After 23 years, I had worked my way up through the ranks of the phone company and was one of the highest paid technical sales people in the company. My customers the day I left were Hewlett-Packard and Apple computers.
When the phone company merged with SBC, they offered managers a early buyout which I accepted, since I had a gold plated résumé, and both a masters and a bachelors degree provided for me by the phone company.
I accepted a position working for an Australian company and lived in Australia for 6 weeks before returning stateside in a work from home position. This job required extensive traveling all around the US to technical conferences. It was quite fun but when 9/11happened I didn’t really feel like getting on an airplane week after week and so that career ended.
9/11 and letting my wonderful job go was actually quite a setback.
I got a local job that paid less and was not very satisfying.
But with my back pain increasing I was happy to have any job and actually considered disability.
Now living in Medford, Oregon, I saw a feature on the evening news about a new procedure called disc replacement surgery. It had been invented in Germany and was in FDA trials here in the US.
Watching the news and hearing the words “disc replacement” really got my attention.
I searched on google and found out about this new thing, developed in Germany, that was now in FDA trials.
I needed to get into this trial.
So I researched this new thing, and researched.
Contacted a clinic in Colorado that was doing it, but the trial was a random study and it was 50/50 I would get a fusion surgery.
I had learned in my research that I certainly didn’t want that.
Next I contacted a clinic in Southern California that had completed their random study and could do the surgery.
How much? I asked.
There was no set price but after several calls I learned it would be at least 70K.
Didn’t have that kind of money so disappointed I gave up and decided to just wait for it to be approved.
Little did I know my condition was so advanced that likely no US surgeon would have offered me disc replacement even if it was FDA approved.
So then one day I remembered from my research that this Charite hospital in Germany had invented disc replacement, maybe they could do it?
Persistence am I not?
So I searched for this hospital, found their website, found some email addresses, and started sending emails asking if they could help me.
After several months I got my reply, yes we can!
How much? 24K Euro.
And they had done 1000 surgeries already.
Off to Germany!
I had a wonderfully successful surgery and the Germans asked me to go home and send a few friends to them.
Soon after my surgery the hospital admin approached me about sending other Americans.
I explained that I had been considering another hospital in Germany who were offering the surgery For 21K, with a 4 day hospital stay, I took your 24K offer with 14 days think I would need the extra time, but now I realize I only needed 4.
So likely I would recommend the 21 plan.
He opened his desk drawer counted out 3K slid it across the table and said “the price is 21 going forward”
I went downstairs and told my dad, who had travelled with me, about the conversation.
My dad, who had a successful sales career, told me “you have the skills and ability to do this, let them know who you are”
When we left the hospital I told them to keep my private room available that I was going to keep it full with American patients.
Well, I did, and not just that room but the entire ward!
Of course I expected 10-20 a year, not 125 a year for 23 years!
When I went to Germany the small orthopedic clinic was struggling to survive and was facing shutting down.
Just 3 years later I was asked to attend the grand opening of a new surgical theatre and front lobby.
Stenum had risen from its troubles and was growing.
Now 20 years later I am headed to Germany to celebrate Stenum’s 100 year anniversary and tour our new patient recovery building.
My legacy of saving this clinic and creating an international destination for orthopedics is often overlooked yet I am confident in my achievement and my legacy.
Another 23 years later now 69 I’m just about ready to call it quits and retire, or maybe not!
No idea what comes next