Creating Success From a Career Challenge

CareerCast - Life-long Career Development

Bonnie St John Career obstacles (especially the big ones) can derail individuals, sometimes forever. Yet others use obstacles to create even greater success, contribution, and career satisfaction. In this Career Cast, Bonnie St. John, para-Olympics’ silver medalist, Director of the National Economic Council in the White House during Clinton administration, business consultant, and author of several books (including How Great Women Lead). In the next CareerCast, Bonnie shares her powerful perspective on how to create success because of a career difficulty, not despite it.

Aired October 16, 2015

Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales: From Everest to Every Business, Achieving Peak Performance by Susan Ershler and John Waechter (2014)

The Power of Starting Something Stupid by Richie Norton (2013)

The Leader’s Pocket Guide: 101 Indispensable Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Any Situation by John Baldoni (2012)

The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like by Michelle Tillis Lederman (2011)

Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life by John Calipari (2010)

Comebacks: Powerful Lessons from Leaders Who Endured Setbacks and Recaptured Success on Their Terms by Andrea Redmond and Patricia Crisafulli (2010)

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor (2010)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith (2010)

Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss by Martha I. Finney (2009)

When Smart People Fail by Carole Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb (2009)

Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward (2007)

Career Comeback: Eight Steps to Getting Back on Your Feet When You’re Fired, Laid Off, or Your Business Venture Has Failed—And Finding More Job Satisfaction Than Ever Before by Bradley Richardson (2004)

Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes by Sydney Finkelstein (2004)

Despite having her right leg amputated at age five, Bonnie St. John became the first African-American ever to win medals in Winter Olympic competition, taking home a silver and two bronze medals at the 1984 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. In recognition of this historic achievement, Bonnie was quoted on millions of Starbucks coffee cups and was honored at the White House by President George W. Bush.

Today, Bonnie travels the globe as a highly sought after keynote speaker, Fortune 500 business consultant, television and radio personality, business owner, and the author of six books including her most recent Amazon #1 best-seller, How Great Women Lead. Bonnie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard, earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and served in the White House as a Director of the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration. She has been featured extensively in both national and international media including: The Today Show, CNN, CBS Morning News, PBS, NPR, and The New York Times, as well as People, “O”, Essence, and Success magazines.

NBC Nightly News called Bonnie, "One of the five most inspiring women in America."

Bonnie St John How Great Women Lead

Read an excerpt of How Great Women Lead: A Mother-Daughter Adventure into the Lives of Women Shaping the World by Bonnie St. John and Darcy Deane

Read the Excerpt