Building a Business with a Beat: Leadership Lessons from Jazzercise—An Empire Built on Passion, Purpose, and Heart

CHAPTER 1

Beginnings

Work with what you’ve got to find your passion. Pay attention to your earliest mentors, then be prepared to dance your ass off.

THE PIGEON-TOED TODDLER

My mother had two stories she liked to tell about my babyhood. The first one goes like this: I was born severely pigeon-toed, with both feet and ankles turned inward. It was cute enough on a newborn. But when I began to take my first steps, it gave me an awkward, unsteady gait. My mother was a young navy wife living in base housing in San Diego, while Dad was on a ship fighting World War II in the Pacific. When she took me for a first-year checkup, she quizzed the navy doctor ...