Infant expected to die turns into author and CEO

Submitted by Alison Silbert

Back in 1977 when I was first born, life for my parents was quite grim. I was very sick. I was rushed to the Hospital for Sick Children within hours of birth, where it was determined I had a brain aneurysm. Emergency surgery was performed to relieve the pressure on my brain. The doctors originally told my mother that 'she will likely die within 24 hours'. When I battled through those first 24 hours, the doctors changed their predictions to 'if she lives, she will be a vegetable the rest of her life'.

Well the hours turned into days, the days into weeks, and I was developing 'normally' apart from issues with crossed eyes (which doctors already knew about). When I was four years old, I started feeling 'weird' at different times. We went to the hospital and were told that I had developed seizures. After some tests were done, my mother was told that I had scarring on the brain which was caused by all of the surgeries I had gone through; that I would have epilepsy all my life and likely wouldn't be able to learn to read or write. My parents were devastated. They didn't know what to expect.

More time passed, and I did indeed have troubles in school with some basic tasks, but I didn't quit. With encouragement from friends, parents and great teachers, I battled on in the face of adversity. Socially I had only a few friends; many of the kids in my class knew nothing about epilepsy and teased me any chance they could.

By the time I got into high-school I ended up afraid to make friends. In spite of that, I ended up with a group of close friends who understood what it was like to be a misfit, and we got along great all through to senior year.

When it came time for post secondary, I was scared. I tried University and soon discovered it wasn't for me. I was petrified to tell my father (who insisted my brother and I go to University), not settle for some 'second rate' community college.

After a long heart-to-heart with my mother about how to tell my father about my choice to go to college, I ended up laughing. The last thing my mum (who has taught since the 1960's) said to me was "what does your father know about education?!"

I looked at her and laughed. She was right! My dad knew nothing about the education system.

I went to a local college for Computer Programming and loved it! Was it easy? No Way! Did I have fun and get the qualification I went for? Definitely!! So much so that 3 years later I went back to the same place for further business qualifications.

Within 2 months of finishing college, I ended up working at the University of Toronto, quite by accident. Those two years were the best education I received about how to put together websites, and how to deal with the clients during the process.

When my contract at the University ended (just after 9/11) I struggled to find a 'job'. My father's business needed some help, so I went to work with him. After 6 months of working at his business, my dad suggested I take some business courses and see if I could start my own business. Well, I did, and Passionate Web Creations was born in 2003.

Between 2003 and 2007 when my first child was born, I built a nice 'little' business helping other solopreneurs create websites: I was outsourcing to various service providers and maintaining a nice take-home income.

Between 2007 and 2009 I took some time away from the business to build my family (my son born in 2007 and my daughter born in 2009). During the time away from the business, I chose to write two books about how to connect the concepts of website programming and development with marketing. The first book was a flop! The content was good, but the concept of the cover design went over many people's heads. When I went to have the cover designed for the second book, I focused more on a core need of many people - business owners and others: money.

After a long drawn out process of writing the content, securing the publishing contract and having cover copy developed, the book is in its final stages of publishing: printing galley copies and securing an ISBN.

Passionate Web Creations is in the process of changing its ideal client, growing and developing new programs to help more of our ideal clients generate new business via the various methods of internet marketing available today.

Visit the author's website.

Submitted by Alison Silbert on June 15^th, 2010