Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Friday, May 04, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - When she was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 years ago, Carol Ann Cole knew she had some big decisions ahead of her.

"I thought I had it all and then I found a lump in my breast," said Cole.

To make matter worse, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer only three days later.

Cole survived her battle to tell her tale, but her mother died.

Cole, now a motivational speaker and author of Lessons Learned upside-the-head, which recounts her climb up the corporate ladder at Bell Canada and battle with breast cancer, spoke to the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce last week.

Most of the Nova Scotia natives' talk focused on her experience in the corporate world, and how she coped after being diagnosed with cancer.

"There are days when you have to remind yourself that even though you've won the rat race you're still a rat," said Cole. "I had this dream from day one that every job I had would be a big one."

Cole worked a number of jobs until she eventually worked her way up the corporate ladder at Bell, while raising her son as a single mother.

She encouraged Chamber of Commerce members and those listening with her own life lessons.

"I believe that your intelligence is reflected by your honesty. If you admit what you don't know you show your intelligence."

Cole said that what a person says or does is not the most important thing in the corporate world.

"People will never forget how you've made them feel," she said.

Cole told the audience she knows her story matters, and it matters because she's there to tell it herself.

"I think it (matters) because I'm doing it in first-person."

Leaving the corporate world for Cole meant learning many different things.

"I have learned to celebrate, even at home."