I had achieved my “dream job” as a lawyer in a big firm, or at least the job I had dreamed about since I was a kid. I had put myself through both college and law school and went into almost $200k in debt to do it. When I started getting this nagging feeling that the job that I had invested so much of my time, money and energy in just wasn’t the right path for me, it created a HUGE amount of inner turmoil. For a while, I thought maybe I was going crazy. In the midst of this struggle, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer that had spread to multiple lymph nodes throughout my body (this story has a happy ending, I promise.) I had just turned 30 when I got the news. When I got that call, my entire world changed. I was no longer concerned with retirement plans or where I might be in my firm in 10 years because I was faced with the reality that I might not have 10 years, or even 5. At that point, I decided that I had to make whatever time I had left on this earth count.

B-School was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. The lessons helped me to get rid of the “shaky, unsure” feeling that I might not be doing the right things to grow my business. It literally helped me to put all of the pieces together in the right order, so to speak.

Going into B-School, my goal was to create online education programs that were accessible to everyone, anywhere in the world, regardless of income. I am a firm believer that with access to high-quality education, you can do anything. I am living proof of that. My parents had very little when I was growing up and I watched them struggle my entire life, despite the fact that they worked so hard to support our family. They just didn’t have the tools that they needed to get ahead. I sponsor a little girl named Nada who lives in Egypt. She is the main motivation for what I am trying to do now. Even though my family lacked financial resources when I was growing up, I was still lucky enough to live in a country where education opportunities are readily available and accessible. In her community, education is limited and girls are typically forced to marry and have children when they are very young. I want to create online business and development programs that could theoretically be accessed by people like Nada that would give her the skills to create an income that she could use to support herself and her family. I realize there are a lot of obstacles here, but I’m starting where I am and doing what I can.

In the few short months since B-School began I have been able to use the skills that Marie taught in B-School to reach over 1500 new students in 118 countries around the world. I am also presenting at a fairly major online business summit that is featuring over 80 well-known speakers in the online business space! I’m planning launches for 5 new online courses. To date, I’ve taught over 2,600 students online and am projecting to triple that number by the end of the year.

And as for the cancer, after two surgeries and a radiation treatment, I found out last month that my test results showed that there were no detectable traces of cancer cells in my body. (I told you this story had a happy ending!)

I’m so grateful that B-School came into my life just when I needed it the most. I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! B-School has made me so much stronger, confident that I’m on the right track with my business, and has put me in a better position to help and serve others.