The Open Secret to My Success
My secret to success is faith guided by works. As a woman of faith, I’ll be the first to admit that God is good. He took care of me and my son through many tough days. Sometimes when I struggled, I questioned what was happening and what I believe. But I held on to my faith. I also understood that my faith without works is void. That meant I had a part to play in my success. If I kept working hard, God would meet me where I was.
I was living in a different city away from my family. I had to work things out. This included child support which I never got from my baby’s father. I tried to get public assistance but was turned down because I had a car in my name. I had bought the car in high school never knowing it would be the reason I was denied public assistance.
Like with all things in my life, that denial of public assistance became another secret to success. When you can’t turn to anyone else to resolve your problems, you know you must work hard and rely on God. I had seen too many people forget that welfare was a temporary solution for a limited time. Instead, they became reliant on public assistance and were never able to break the cycle. I wanted a different life for me and my son. So, I became smart with my money. I only bought the necessities so I could survive without welfare or child support.
Can a broke college student who is also a parent make it without welfare or child support?
My answer is a big yes! The secret to success in that area is
- Being smart with your money
- Sacrifice as needed and get ahead
What do you need to change or adjust to make it without child support or public assistance?
I made it work, you can too.
Work + Faith = my secret to success
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I’m Summer Owens, and my passion is helping youth and young adults realize success no matter what obstacles they face. As an international resilience and leadership keynote speaker, author, S.O. What! Success Coach, and creator of the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education curriculum, I empower people to say, “So what!” to even their greatest challenges. provide a framework to help people see past their challenges and focus on solutions using the S.O. What! Success System (Overcome Obstacles + Eliminate Excuses + Calculate Choices = S.O. What! Success). Through keynotes, workshops, books, online courses, and workbooks, I use life’s challenges and my own story of resilience as a rape survivor and teen mom success story to help others confidently pursue their dreams.
Looking for an inspiring college motivational speaker? A high school literacy curriculum? A middle school life skills workbook? A great example for teen mothers? A women’s empowerment or single mother’s conference speaker? I’m your girl and will help any audience say, “S.O. What!”.
