I didn’t know it then, but the little girl bouncing through a hay field in an oversized go cart was already learning how she would spend the rest of her life winning races she wasn’t supposed to enter.
One of my earliest memories looks a lot like the photo on the right. It was a weekend in Liberty, Missouri on a backyard go cart track where boys and men came to race. Engines roared, fuel hung in the air, and the starter rope snapped like a chainsaw bringing each cart to life.
I was five years old.
The cart I drove was my brother’s number 15, and it was far too big for me. My legs were too short to reach both the brake and the gas at the same time. So I made a decision.
I used the gas.
When the tight S curve came up too fast, I couldn’t slow down, so I cut through the hay field beside the track and bounced my way back onto the pavement ahead of everyone else. Lap after lap, the same thing happened, and somehow I kept winning.
Where the Lesson Started
If you look closely at that photo, you’ll see a man sitting on a railroad tie with a Schlitz beer in his hand.
That’s my father.
I was his right hand girl. All weekend long I heard the same thing:
“Sis, get me a wrench.”
“Sis, hold the steering wheel.”
“Sis, grab that tool.”
My father wasn’t the kind of dad who gave hugs or long speeches about encouragement. Instead, he gave me something far more valuable.
He expected me to do the job.
No special treatment. No shortcuts. No excuses.
That little race track taught me something that still guides me today.
When the path in front of you doesn’t work, you find another way around it.
That’s my father.
I was his right hand girl. All weekend long I heard the same thing:
“Sis, get me a wrench.”
“Sis, hold the steering wheel.”
“Sis, grab that tool.”
My father wasn’t the kind of dad who gave hugs or long speeches about encouragement. Instead, he gave me something far more valuable.
He expected me to do the job.
No special treatment. No shortcuts. No excuses.
That little race track taught me something that still guides me today.
When the path in front of you doesn’t work, you find another way around it.