= Wilma’s Background
Hello! I’m Wilma Woodson. Here’s a little background about me. My childhood years were in the Mid-West. It was not a good fit for me with the Civil Rights movement & I jumped at the chance to attend the University of Hawaii graduate school. The inclusiveness of multiple races, cultures, & religions was a refreshing contrast.
While at UH, I wrote my Master’s thesis on a Mathematical Model of Negotiation. This was an exciting time – during the birth of computers & the internet. There were no college courses or professors to teach about computers, only a few guys who learned by doing. I’d date guys with technical skills & pick their brains to teach me what they knew. I learned how to write the computer programs to test my thesis hypotheses. Computers were rather primitive then by today’s standards. The university computer filled a room the size of a hotel ballroom & originally ran only one program at a time. Today, a teenager carries a small device many times more powerful.
I married a Naval Officer on Polaris Submarines & we moved quite a bit – VA, CT, IL, CA. He was gone for months at a time & I worked as a programmer or attended a local university.
We adopted a racially mixed daughter when we were at Urbana-Champaign, IL & we three moved to Southern CA. Our marriage ended & I became a single parent & the sole provider. We moved to Silicon Valley in Northern CA.
I worked as a technical writer. I bluffed my way into jobs claiming that I knew the topics & how to write. I learned on the job & no one ever caught on that I didn’t have the experience prior.
Again, I was in a good place. This was when the computer industry was exploding at a rate of 360%. At first, it was difficult for a woman to get hired & be paid equally. We technical gals had our own network & adopted non-female names for our job applications. The gals who didn’t were rarely invited for interviews. I used ‘Wil’. Once in the door, we at least had a chance to get the job. Because of the explosive growth, those barriers quickly disappeared & I enjoyed a 30 year IT career, including two startups.
When my daughter graduated from High School & attended Georgetown University in Washington DC, I grabbed the opportunity to move to Denver, CO.
In CO, I worked mostly as an Independent Contractor. By then, the long hours & stress started to take its toll on my health. I was a ‘good’ patient & did whatever my doctors told me to do. I was seeing 4 specialists & was on 6 prescriptions. Instead of getting better, my health deteriated & I peaked at 250 lbs.
I developed multiple disabilities & in 98, I was declared permanently disabled. I was exhausted all the time & in constant pain.
My disability check was not enough to live on. I tried several home-based businesses. I studied Robert Kiyosaki & facilitated his 101 Cashflow games for 6 years in the Denver area. I mentored many people who were looking for an alternative to their dead end jobs. I was known by many as their ‘Rich Mom.’
My success at home-based businesses was inconsistent. My health kept declining & I was tapping into my retirement & savings. I downsized my home, used up all of my savings/retirement, & filed bankruptcy.
I was introduced to the Wellness Industry & started taking the natural products. My symptoms simply disappeared & I was able to dramatically decrease my prescriptions. I went from 6 prescriptions to 2 & I take less than ½ the minimum dosage of each. I was 70 yrs old in 2009. I feel like a younger woman, only with better judgment.
My road to success had plenty of bumps along the way. I’ve learned how to regain my health.
Continue with I Was Broken Physically & Financially.