How do you go from being VERY wealthy to being VERY poor? Trust the wrong person. That is what happened to Alexandra Penney. She put all of her money into the hands of Bernie Madoff, the man who introduced the phrase PONZI SCHEME into the American lexicon. Going on the advice of several of her very close fabulously wealthy friends who were clients of Madoff, she, too, allowed Madoff access to her finances eventually trusting him implicitly with all of her finances. At first everyone seemed to be making money on their investments with Madoff. Life was good. Gatsby good. Then, the bottom fell out. Madoff was unmasked and all of the investors lost everything they had allowed him access to. Alexandra did not escape financial ruin. Her fear was that she would become a bag lady like she had seen on the streets when she was young. Penniless, living in a cardboard box if she could find one, begging for food, dying from exposure to the elements and lack of good hygiene she feared the worst always feeling she was one step away from being pitched out on the street. It became a phobia of hers. Her mind first began running the horrific gamut of worst case scenarios. She fought hard to get help in finding Madoff – didn’t happen – getting help from the government – long time coming and she was feeling like a mouse in a maze with no cheese to be found. Alexandra’s circumstances left her penniless. Life just got an abrupt change.She didn’t get a wake up call – she got a full force body slam. Everything she knew was about to go under, that is when she shifted her thinking and decided not to let herself and her child (she was also recently divorced) drown, she was going to live and live as well as she could. She began to think of ways to take back her life and started thinking of every way possible she could come back from this devastating loss. She called in favors from friends and started networking with anyone and everyone that might be able to help her get a job. She explored her talents, her strengths and began going on interviews.
This book tells how a person can rise as a phoenix from the ashes when all you have left are ashes. She didn’t just have a can do attitude, she had a WILL DO attitude. A good book for showing one how to truly think outside the box and come back from adversity. Her phobia made her feel it was survive or die and there was no way she was not going to be a survivor. You can almost feel the wheels turning as her ideas come rapid fire. Guts and determination pulled her through. Good Read. I really enjoyed it.
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