She’s a fighter through and through

I have great admiration for people with natural born hustle. When faced with obstacles, they dig down deep for the strength to persevere, where others would just throw up their hands in surrender.

Stephanie Waite, vice president of talent acquisition at Freedom Mortgage, is one who has my unconditional respect. She joined me on a podcast episode of “Unusual Attitudes” to share an inspirational story of triumph, defeat, and perseverance.

It’s important to step back from our day-to-day responsibilities to absorb powerful personal stories like hers. We may one day find ourselves in a situation where life is turned completely upside down. I’ve certainly been there.

Watch the entire podcast or continue reading for the highlights.

Begging for roles

Waite is many things — a mom, a dancer, a lover of dogs, and all things fun and exciting. If she really had to whittle it down to one word that defines her best, it’s fighter. One of her first tastes of adversity came in her 20s when she left college to join a friend’s telemarketing business. She was a creative, strategic thinker who found school, well, boring.

Without a degree, it became a challenge to make it in the real world.

“I almost had to beg for roles,” she said. 

Not having a degree today isn’t the impediment it once was. Fortunately, the hiring focus has shifted to skills as a better determinant of the ability to do a job rather than a piece of framed parchment paper. The result is that plenty of major employers — from Apple to IBM — no longer require a degree.

In Waite’s case, as trying as it was to get a foot in the door, there was a silver lining to being a professional without a college credential.

“It instilled in me a work ethic that has driven my success,” she said. “I had to work harder than everyone else in the room.”

There is a certain mindset that develops when someone learns the ropes in the school of hard knocks. People deftly maneuver through situations at work better. They can pivot and get out in front of issues and problems quicker, thanks to the hustle gene. Research bears this out.

Bedridden for a year

As trying as those times were for Waite, nothing would compare to what happened to her next.

About two decades ago she collapsed after running a half marathon in Philadelphia. Tests revealed a rare autoimmune disease. Waite had to leave a recruiting job she enjoyed in an organization where she was thriving.

“It was at that moment in time that I realized that I was going to have to absorb the fact that my life as I thought it was going to be was just never going to happen.”

The early prognosis, if she survived, was being wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life. That alone would have been devastating enough for the former dancer, but she also had a toddler at home to raise.

How did she manage motherhood while unable to walk?

“I would crawl downstairs in the morning, put all the food and toys and things we would need for the day in my backpack, and I would crawl back up the stairs, and he and I would just spend the entire day together in my giant bed.”

Health woes derail promising careers far more than most people realize. One of the world’s top-rated women tennis players called it quits at 30 years old because of several chronic conditions. In Waite’s case, she gradually got her stamina back and returned to the workforce as a consultant.

Delegating isn’t a dirty word

Our conversation pivoted to the larger issue of women in the workplace. Women have made great strides in the last decade, with a higher percentage in C-suite positions compared to 10 years ago, McKinsey found. Yet, men outnumber women at every level.

Waite thinks women can help themselves by delegating responsibilities to others, freeing them up to engage in more high-value strategic thinking.

“I don’t think we delegate enough,” she said. “We over-perform at home, work, family, children, house, that old tradition, and I think we're struggling to break out of that.”

She also challenges women to get out in front of office problems. “Be very gritty in how you're looking at your opportunities within the workplace to fix something, change something, lift someone else up, and make progress for the organization.”

Her final bit of advice — find your professional passion and run with it. Become an expert in that one area you are passionate about, and you will build trust from senior leaders. Become something to someone and you are irreplaceable. In Waite’s case it was talent acquisition, which she got her first taste of so many years ago when she left college to recruit people to work for her friend’s telemarketing business.

Isn’t it remarkable how decisions that, at the time, may have been unwise, only to have them be the best things that could've happened to us? Look how well that turned out for Waite.