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 |  | Dream Weavers By Michele Sponagle When it comes to tackling change and challenges, three women confront their fears and win. | | | Have you ever started a sentence with “I wish…”? Well, you’re not alone. At pivotal points in life, we tend to ponder the possibility of doing something else – to chase a dream or follow a whim. Where people differ is what they do with that hope. Some put it back into some far corner of the mind, some hold it near and dear for a future time, and some, like the women featured in these pages, make it come true. Although their stories vary, you’ll be inspired on how they overcame obstacles to create their own true success story. | | |  | | Laughing
her way to
the top | Maggie Cassella began her working career as a lawyer. After 8 years practising in Boston, she moved to Canada. To be a lawyer here, she had to pass the bar exam. She couldn’t bring herself to prepare for it. “Every time I picked up the law textbook to study, I felt sick to my stomach,” she recalls. “In retrospect, I knew that law was never my passion, but I pursued it because I was scared to fail in what I was truly passionate about – comedy. It seemed that I was always running away from what I really wanted to do.”
| | Her transition to comedy happened gradually over three years. Initially she did stand up part time. By age 33, Maggie had a solid reputation as a top-notch comedian and had enough gigs to leap into a full-time comedy career as well as fulfill her creative spirit writing her own material.
To those pondering a change, she encourages: “It doesn’t matter how much time you invested in something, or how much money you make. Life is really about trying to be a good person and that means being a happy person. If what you’re doing isn’t making you happy, then make a switch to what makes you happy. You won’t regret it, I don’t.”
Maggie Cassella, comedian/producer/writer | | |  | | Learning to walk in
new shoes | When Joyce Groote was a geneticist conducting research in the lab at the University of Alberta, she would have laughed if someone told her she’d be running a company that produces colourful, funky footwear. Joyce is proof that life is full of surprises.
None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for January 2000. While president of BIOTECanada, she was hit in the face with a pie, flung by an activist. “I realized that biotechnology had become too hot and my job had shifted to crisis management,” she remembers. It was official, her passion for the field was dying – she no longer loved going to work. After 20 years in the field she knew it was time for a change.
Her first step was to head back to school. With her MBA in hand, she was prepped for the next phase of her working life – becoming an entrepreneur. An opportunity presented itself literally right next door. | | Her neighbour was operating a footwear company called Holey Soles out of her garage. Joyce recognized its potential and signed on as a business partner. In 2004 when revenue stood at $60,000, she bought out her partner. The next year, it blossomed to just under $4 million; today’s current revenue projection is $12 million.
To those with a dream, Joyce prompts, “Follow your passion. Really know yourself, what you like, and don’t like to do.” And when it comes to society’s limitations put on women in business, she encourages, “Don’t fall into the trap of believing there’s a glass ceiling for women. Limitations become self-fulfilling prophecies if you do.”
Joyce Groote, geneticist/biotechnology policy developer/CEO & president of Holey Soles | | |  | | Moving beyond the
fear | Tackling fear is something Melissa Munroe has made a habit. When doctors gave her three months to live after a breast cancer diagnosis, she faced an uncertain future. She battled the disease with everything she had, defying the prognosis and surviving. Six years later she confronted a different kind of battle, a five-kilometer charity run for cancer that became an unexpected metaphor of life and death. “It was an antidote to cancer which symbolizes death”, she explains. “The race represented life, hope and support to me and I was scared that I wasn’t going to finish.” Melissa recalls the initial minutes of the race, “My body was struggling. I watched strong, healthy runners pass me in waves, it sparked a sad memory of when I had cancer and the period when the treatment was proving ineffective – I was confronting the reality that I was dying.” Pouring with sweat, “I recalled the wisdom I acquired with cancer – how worldliness and understanding eventually grow. That all things eventually end, but I was willing to live.”
| | This memory gave her the strength to begin running again. “For the entire race, my mind floated between physical and emotional states. My thoughts danced between memory and reality – sometimes running, sometimes walking, but always towards the finish line. A metaphor of how I navigate through life now.”
Conquering her next fear is filming a documentary – Breasticide: A Breast Cancer Story – by not doing the topic justice. She’s determined to give a voice to these women, their partners and the importance of turning awareness of the disease into action – from living healthier to visiting her Facebook page. Accepting that fear will always be present she shares her learned philosophy, “Sit with your fear, acknowledge it, and look for the underlying message. Fear isn’t who you are. It doesn’t define you. It’s a small piece of the pie of your life. I found it’s there to move me forward.”
Melissa Munroe, photographer/documentary filmmaker/breast cancer survivor/ athlete H&L |
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