Linda L. Ammons, keynote speaker at the Women in Business Luncheon Tuesday, talked faster than a contestant on Password. She spoke so quickly she shoehorned seven key points and a breathing exercise into a 10-minute speech.
Ammons, counsel to the president for legal education at Widener University, told the crowd of 450 she was going to give them a gift. She told them to close their eyes. Then she instructed them to take a deep breath.
“That’s the most precious gift you will ever receive – the breath of life. What are you doing with that gift?” she asked.
Ammons, who experienced a heart attack in October 2013, told the group that she’s changed up the way she lives since. She shared her seven “nos” with them ““ and she make it clear they were not “no fat” or “no carbs.”
Instead, they were tips:
- Know thyself.
- Know your passion: “Tap into your passion and you will have food for life,” she told them.
- Know your value.
- Know your business and its culture: “Don’t just settle for the current assignment,” she said. “Be a fixer.”
- Know the order and importance of things.
- Know your own definition of success.
- Know the time: “Is it time to speak up or shut up?”
Many businesswomen in the audience nodded in agreement when Ammons said, “I have learned in my years we often learn more from failure than we
do from success.
“Use the blocked door as a reason to look in another direction,” she told her audience. “Let nothing in your experience go to waste.”
As they walked out of the Chase Center at the Riverfront, women were exchanging businesses cards, carrying bags of giveaway merchandise and still talking about Ammons’ speech.
