Book excerpt: The year was 1983, and a fateful trip to the hardware store changed the course of author Kathy Gardarian’s life, not to mention the shape of her soul. Because of a faulty nozzle, a woman who barely owned a hammer became CEO of a prosperous, worldwide distribution-and-supply company, whose main client, Home Depot, became a successful mecca of the tool-belt crowd. In Feet to the Fire, Gardarian narrates her story. This memoir tells a transformational tale about a woman who learned to find her soul while climbing the ladder of success. Gardarian shares her lifelong business challenge: to be a capable woman who proved her personal drive could create a highly successful company using openhearted love as her motivational tool. She sought to defy the traditional male business influences who informed her she couldn’t succeed without a man. Feet to the Fire tells how she learned to be brave, how to hold her feet to the fire, and how to invite deep change while tolerating acute discomfort. She had to keep her dreams and ambition alive in a world where strong women were often viewed with suspicion. She had to practice patience. Most of all, she had to maintain faith, and trust in the process, until she reached a place not only of professional success, but of spiritual abundance. Using the tools of humility, humor, and wisdom, Gardarian offers an alternate path to prosperity using feminine principals.