Inspirational Women hen you meet Debbra Sweet, it is easy to see what a dynamic individual she is. When she speaks, people listen; not only due to her delivery and positive attitude but because she is right on target with what she has to say about what it takes to be a successful business person in today's economy. Debbra was introduced to business early. Her father, an entrepreneur, bought his first bowling alley when she was just four. He ended up owning several bowling alleys throughout Wisconsin. As family businesses, there was no question that everyone in the household would contribute. "I got my first paycheck at the age of nine making $2.15 an hour. By the time I was 17, I was managing one of my father's businesses. Innovative for the time, I came up with creative ways to get more customers and make money. My dad approached me about buying one of the companies that year." They could not see eye to eye on which one she should buy. She wanted the one in the city. He felt she should buy one in the smaller town. Debbra’s instinct was that she was meant to be on stage sharing her creative side through music. She chose college, knowing she would have her own businesses someday. Just a week before high school graduation her life was impacted in a way she would never have imagined. "In a moment of time, I had a life-altering experience. I tried to move a brick wall with my head!" Debbra loved riding her bicycle and one day competed in a bike marathon raising money for charity. At the end of the 52-mile event, she was riding to cool down and swerved to avoid a car coming up behind her. Instead of colliding with the car, the bike flipped out from under her. Flying over the handlebars of the bike she hit a solid brick wall, head first! The car drove on. Debbra
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was by herself, knowing that something felt different, very different. "Helmets weren't required at that time. I stood back up and fell down. I stood back up again and fell down. I got mad and then reached up to my head. I had a pear size welt on the top right side my head. No blood, but it hurt. Out of
checked into the E.R., and then I blacked out. Later coming too, I was released from the hospital with a guarantee that I was fine, that there was no concussion or anything, but if something changed to call them. This was the beginning of a very long detour in my life. I was functioning, but things were not the same."
Debbra Sweet
Photos by Marcy Browe/www.MarcyBrowe.com
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AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL By Judith A. Habert sheer will and determination, I got up, stayed up, got to my bike and then rode back to the event to tell the coordinators what happened and that I was going to the hospital." “No one believed it was a serious incident. Even at the hospital, I had to convince them to admit me. Thankfully they eventually did. I was
She was unaware the accident shocked, locked and rocked the very foundation of her life plan. She was just 18. Leaving her father’s business she attended college for a while with a major in Music Performance. Debbra’s musical talents include; singing, writing, singing, writing,and playing many instruments, with her
specialty being the Saxophone. This was not an easy time for her, yet ever visionary and entrepreneurial, Debbra moved forward with her life moving to California to follow her deepest passion: music. "Since the accident, I have had three seasons, periods, where I lost normal function and mobility. I couldn't talk, couldn't walk, or remember, and my internal organs started shutting down. In 1991 I was working in Mission Valley. I went to take a break, went into the ladies room. When I stood up, my back snapped. That was the beginning of one of the worst season of my life. I call it round 2.” During this period, her life entailed visiting a wide variety of doctors. She wanted to know why she couldn't walk. They kept saying it was multiple sclerosis. Not one to sit quietly on the sidelines and let status quo be status quo, she dug deeper. After a year and a half of medical visits, not happy with their narrow focus of MS, she fired her doctors. "During this time I met my husband. He had some knowledge of Alternative Approaches to medicine. He brought me a ton of books from the library, and I started my research." Highly sensitive to drugs, Debbra needed a solution that did not require the use of medication. Trailblazing here, they started using alternative methods until they created a program that worked to improve her condition. Eventually reintegrating into ‘normal life,' yet without an understanding as to the cause of the health issue, they married and had two children. "My husband and I started a carpet cleaning business, and that was a pivotal time for us in our professional career. He did the jobs, and I handled the business end of things. We are both musicians, so we ran the business by day and continued playing music at night.”