Six years ago, I started a business.

I thought the hardest part would be building it.

What I didn’t realize yet was that the business would end up rebuilding me.

Over the last six years I’ve learned lessons about leadership, resilience, and people that no business book prepares you for.

Some of those lessons were hard.

Some were painful.

But every one of them shaped the leader I am today.

One truth took me years to understand:

When a woman stops seeking approval, she becomes very difficult to control.