Barefoot Books co-founder Nancy Traversy's message

At the Barefoot Books International Conference 2008 in Cambridge, MA, Barefoot Book's co-founder and CEO Nancy Traversy welcomed all the guests and stallholders and delivered a very insightful message to everybody at the audience. She was very enthusiastic and honest in every word she said, which truly made me feel connected with her and the company she and Tessa Strickland started in 1993.

What I liked about Nancy was that she was very transparent in her message. She talked about their victories, the challenges that she and Tessa overcame for the past 15 years as the visionaries of the Barefoot Books. She was as vivid and colorful as the stories that the Barefoot Books publishes. You could certainly tell that you can not separate the company from her ~ because she speaks genuinely from the heart in every aspect of the company. She was proud to admit about their failures in setting up the Barefoot Books and even openly told us about all the mishaps she's had between balancing motherhood and being a CEO of a very cause-driven, people-oriented and socially-aware company. I'd have to say she is truly a walking image of SUCCESS and I would like to share with everybody what I've highlighted from her message to Barefoot Books Stallholders and how you could apply that as well to whatever you do.

According to her, "Success comes with perseverance." and with that said, she definitely persevered and still doing so with all the plans she and Tessa's got for the company. Nancy pointed that in order to attain success here are few things to remember:

1. Simplify
2. Focus on building relationship - isn't it that life is all about relationships? No man is an island. She said, "Listen to their stories."
3. Appreciate opportunities
4. Believe in community
5. Be pioneering - Don't just sit there and follow the traditional path. Do something that is unique. Do something more creative and pioneer in what you do.
6. Redefine success - Success is not always determined with how much do you earn in a year or how much money do you have in the bank but maybe if we redefine success based on other social causes and helping our community that might be a lot better.

In accordance with the conference theme of Telling Stories, I wanted to share what Nancy Traversy said about storytelling ~ that Storytelling is the heart of what it means to be humans! Learning the facts is important but story and imagination are far more powerful.