What inspired me to write Reflections of a Successful Wallflower – Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life?

I have a textbook situation. My mother influenced my entire life. I yearned for her recognition (never to come, by the way). And that dynamic was destructive. As my mother was a Type A Narcissist, any word of criticism or leading to my recognizing that she was less than perfection itself would have caused a breach in our relationship, unhealthy as it might have been.

So, I waited. And I stored up my feelings. Until she died I was not comfortable revealing my thoughts about her, nor some of my relationships. I didn’t want to be judged by her, and judged I would have been for the bad choices I made. The positive things I revealed would have been ignored.

I made mistakes. Lots of them. In the process I learned a lot of lessons. My career is in the Events Industry. When I started, there was no industry. Everything I did was trial and error with no role model, no classes, no books to read. As my career developed and I created (with a very few others) the industry that is world recognized today, I wanted to share my experiences and those lessons learned. I wanted to show that adversities could be overcome and give specific lessons on how to do so.

I do believe that the same set of skills are needed to nurture personal relationships as are needed to develop business relationships. I also believe that stress is not necessary and there are ways of avoiding it.

So if I can empower, inspire, teach, mentor or even simply entertain, then the book has done its job.

Andrea Michaels is the president of multiple award-winning  Extraordinary Events .  EE just took home its 39th Special Events magazine Gala Award. Andrea was presented with the Steve Kemble Leadership Award during The Special Event in January 2015, adding to numerous personal honors, including the Pillar of the Industry Gala and the Event Solution Hall of Fame awards. She is the author of  Reflections of a Successful Wallflower – Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life   and co-author of three other business books -  Stepping Stones to Success with Deepak Chopra and Jack Canfield; Yes You Can with authors Dr. Warren Bennis and Jim Rohn and Bushido Business – The Art of the Modern Professional with Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and Stephen M.R. Covey.

Follow Andrea on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Extraordinary-Events/;https://www.facebook.com/pages/Reflections-of-a-Successful-Wallflower-Lessons-in-Business-Lessons-in-Life/ and Twitter @extraordinaryev.