The financial crisis wreaked havoc on David Edwards’s company…and life. As he watched his firm’s assets shrink by 50%, his endocrine system flew into disarray, and he wondered whether he was cut out for this job, this industry, this world.
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René Syler co-anchored the CBS Morning Show from 2002-2006. Having started out as a local news anchor in Reno, NV, her ascent to the network level was meteoric. So, when she lost the job amid a network shakeup, it was that much harder to take.
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Erin came to New York City at 18 years old with only grit and determination to fall back on. Needing to pay for food, housing, school — and fast — Erin learned how to hustle. That hustle would pay off in 2014 when, after a year of traveling the world, Erin started down the entrepreneurial road, one beset by challenges internal and external.
Erin's company, Dynama Insurance, is more successful today than ever. Her story is a must-listen for young entrepreneurs — especially women — hoping to make their mark on the world.
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In 2011, a freak cycling accident nearly killed Michael O’Brien. Doctors were bearish on Michael’s chances to resume normal function — but Michael felt otherwise.
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Aged out of her career and reeling from her husband’s financial infidelities, Lisa Weldon found herself 58 years old and in need of a new start. While all of us take recovery one step at a time, Lisa took it one step further, walking every neighborhood in New York City, and building an online following around her blogs and photographs.
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In just nine episodes, we spanned much territory: Navy Seal operations in Iraq, backpacking in Turkey, folk singing in Nashville, financial crisis all across the country, and more. We talked to people who grew up with nothing and people who grew up with everything. In short, we talked to humanity — the many ways it can manifest, the common lessons that make our days enjoyable.
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Julie Davitz literally grew up in a barn, believing that the best thing in life would be to marry — and marry rich. In spite of her spunk, her tenacity, her independence, Julie took the safe road.
But looks, as we know, are often deceiving. The “safe road” can be anything but.
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There’s no guidebook for grief. It’s an internal battle. People on the outside can provide support, but the real work happens on the inside. It’s hard enough when a relative dies at a ripe old age. But when someone we love is taken from us prematurely, and in the worst possible way, the difficulty multiplies.
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In 2008, the financial crisis brought Rachelle Fender’s career to a halt. But she’d seen devastation before, and she realized that this time, the worst news could actually be the best news — with the right mindset, and with courage. Rachelle found her life’s purpose working with the humanitarian organization appropriately named Unstoppable.
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Justin Breen, founder of BrEpic, was born with a story. He found out he had what it took when his career came to a halt. A Chicago journalist, he was told one day that his salary was being cut in half for no particular reason. Over the course of the next several months, he reached out to 5000 people. The day after he got his fifth client, he resigned, and his company was off to the races.
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Dustin Lowman wasn’t always my marketing manager. In 2015, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to turn his passion for songwriting into a career. But things didn’t go completely as planned for the 22-year-old. Struggling in an industry town, Dustin faced trials of confidence and identity he never thought he’d face.
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When we think about war stories, we tend to think in terms of Saving Private Ryan — heroism in the heat of battle, the willingness to face down death for the sake of our fellow soldiers.
My guest this month, Curt Cronin, calls that “valorous courage.” Curt served as a Navy Seal in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Through some trying times, when the U.S. was conducting combat operations in unfamiliar terrain and against an unfamiliar enemy, Curt realized that “infinitesimal courage” — the courage to have tough conversations — was much more valuable. In Curt’s case, that meat telling his commanding officer what he really thought about his orders, unsure of the outcome, not once, but three times.
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Who do you trust?
The older we get, the more is at stake, and the harder trust is to come by. My guest this month on “To Grit with Grace,” divorce lawyer and newly minted author Leslie Montanile, was burned by one kind of trust: that which she invested in her business partner Jeff. But she was saved by another kind of trust: that which she invested in her husband, Joe.
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Bruce DeBoskey was a bearded, camera-toting 21-year-old when he first came face to face with inhumanity. It happened in a remote part of Turkey. Bruce faced a choice that day that would change the course of his life.
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The ’08 financial crisis kicked off what I like to call my “Trifecta of Suck.” Followed closely by a breast cancer diagnosis and a divorce, the 10-year period starting in 2008 was a trial. Survival was made possible only by the support of my friends, and an insistence on grit — a trait I learned from my father.
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