I didn't have the easiest childhood. I was never the popular girl in school growing up. I was always the lone black girl or the lone fat girl or the long tall girl, so that has made me more compassionate to all people. It also gave me the drive and ambition to go after my dreams in a big way.

I think the biggest issue for women in the workplace is men!

There's no worse way to insult a woman than by saying she looks like a man, but once a woman gets over that, there is no stronger woman.

I view myself as a multicultural woman who happens to be black.

In any community there's a strong pull home. People want to return, see their community get better economically and socially. You can build those community-grown opportunities for the kids who've graduated from college to return home, to provide businesses and support things going on. It'll only happen through education.

So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with.

My parents elected me president of the family when I was 4. We actually had an election every year, and I always won. I'm an only child, and I could count on my mother's vote.

I had left everything because of my marriage. As a girl, I know what my responsibility towards my husband and his family is, and I used to do everything according to his will. I kept all his family members in mind, but he still expected more from me.