Life is not fair or easy, so spend your time focusing on the real issues.
Billie would want you to know that every life has turbulence. What is important is how you handle the rough patches. Billie spent nine years traveling and performing until she found herself unmarried and pregnant in a time when women were shunned for such behavior. This became a turning point in her life. Rather than abandon her love of dance, she chose to return to her hometown and begin a new chapter of her life. It surely was not easy for her to give up on that part of her dream, but rather than focus on the negative, she found a way to redefine success and excel.
Most mistakes are not catastrophic
Although she could have taken the birth of my dad as a setback or a premature end to her career, Billie decided to move forward. Seeing that young black girls were still barred from the white dance studios in her home town, she decided to open a dance studio. Over the years she must have taught hundreds if not thousands of girls to dance. She did it because she needed to provide for herself and her son, but she also made a conscious decision to stay focused on her love of dance. It was that perseverance that made her a successful business owner in the second act of her career.
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