I Have Been Building Things That Run Without Me

I have been building things that run without me since I was four years old, long before I knew operations was a career.

It started in my neighbor's living room, playing accountant with an adding machine that made me feel important. By seven, while my brothers played outside, I was at my mom's office filing, organizing, and greeting visitors like a tiny administrative professional. Thanks Mom. Mostly.

At nine, the University of Washington Office of Diversity Affairs got its first PC. A terminal on a rolling tray in a dark room. Every adult avoided it. I sat down and figured it out. Soon I was printing student schedules and eliminating white out from the workflow. I did not know what to call what I was doing, but I knew it felt right.

I am multi-passionate. Employee engagement, events, community building, all of it energizes me. I have watched interns grow into Corporate Vice Presidents, and knowing I played even a small part is a reward no job title captures. But every path I explored led me back to operations.

Operations is where innovation actually happens. Not in the strategy deck. In the systems, rhythms, and frameworks that turn ideas into reality. In a world demanding efficiency, adaptability, and AI driven transformation, operations does not support the business. Operations leads it.

The moment everything clicked came early in my time supporting my last EVP. I was still in reactive mode, waiting for direction. He told me to treat the organization like it was my business and make the right decisions for the business.

From that day forward, I stopped waiting and started leading.

In this series I am sharing stories I have never told publicly. The messy ones, the pivotal ones, the ones that reveal how high functioning organizations actually work.

If you are hiring, you want someone ready on day one. Someone who takes ownership. Someone who does not flinch at the hard stuff.

That is me.

I do not change groups. I transform them. I go get the answers. I learn fast. I do not quit. And I leave every organization better than I found it.

It started at four years old with an adding machine. It is still true today.

What is the moment you realized the career you were building was actually yours?