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He sold his stock, leveraged his house, asked for money from his friends and family and pleaded with local banks until he secured $6 million. Then, the real hard work started: How was he going to pay it all back? 

“Until you're in the frying pan, you don't realize exactly how hot it is,” said Wade, a native of Jamaica.

He spent a lot of sleepless nights, but seeing the stores succeed was his dream. Wade now owns more than 30 McDonald's restaurants in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

“Dream difficult dreams,” Wade said.
“As long as you were disciplined, and you continue to network yourselves, you will be lucky.”

Cassandra Oliver is a third-career professional. She was first an investment broker, then a teacher. Now she owns a marketing and promotions company with her husband, Brian.

“My biggest mistake was allowing my fear to dictate what I was going to do in each one of those spaces,” said Oliver, who has a Ph.D. in education from Florida Atlantic University.

When she graduated college as a broker, the housing market had just crashed and Oliver found a passion for teaching. She stayed in the classroom for years before daring to apply for an administrative position.

Moving out of her comfort zone, she said, and into her space of fear opened doors for her to pursue administrative positions and later open her own branding and promotional company.

“Fear kept me in spaces that I didn't need to be too long,” she said.
“Figure out that fear and push into it."

Alan Bottorff co-founded Teledactyl, a health care technology company. He spoke about the importance of searching for their passions and working their life around them to build something meaningful, for themselves and others.

“If you don't have an interest in it, it's going to be more like a job,” he said. “Not to say that it's not going to be worth it, but you want it to be fun.”

Bottorff shared his 5 P's for success:

• * Passion: To drive your motivation. 
• * Plan: To approach and stay focused. 
• * Pivot: Be prepared to pivot: You want to stay flexible. 
• * Perseverance: To overcome the challenges that you will see. 
• * Purpose: Make a long-lasting impact on your community.

Verdenia Baker first began working for Palm Beach County in 1987 as a budget analyst. She was selected in 2015 to serve as the county's administrator, overseeing more than 6,000 employees and balancing a $6 billion budget.

Baker said public servants get involved with the government because they want to help all residents, regardless of their political party. For that reason, they need to be "professional, neutral and citizen-focused.“

"Regardless of whether you're Republican, Democrat, independent, you need clean drinking water, you need your toilets to flush, you need your roads, traffic signals to work, parks for your kids,” Baker said. “Our job is to be good stewards of taxpayers' dollars, and to provide the very best service we can provide to our residents.”

She said PBSC offers a variety of technical and professional careers in five campuses around the county to ensure education is accessible.

“We have this commitment to ensure that for every resident of our community
who wants to seek a post-high school credential,
they can do so within 20 minutes of their home,” she said.

Brian Coleman is an orthopedic surgeon who operates in Loxahatchee's HCA Palms West Hospital. Before choosing any career, he said, students need to work on finding out who they are and avoid getting pushed by family and friends. He thinks people leave health care when they eventually realize it doesn't fit them.

For Coleman, his passion for healing people keeps him motivated to see patients and keep learning every day.

"Know yourself. Love yourself," Coleman said.
"Understand that it is a commitment that never ever stops."