Barbara Baker was 15 years old, teaching a children's Sunday school class, when she found her destiny.
A swarm of wasps "invaded" the tiny classroom, forcing Baker to abandon her planned lesson and embark with her class on an impromptu journey into the world of the buzzing winged insects. It was then that Baker said she first saw the excitement of children in the process of learning, and the joy she felt in helping them.
In 1963, Baker founded a preschool program in San Jose, Calif. That six-student class grew to 24, which grew to a second school, which became the Challenger School system. Over the next four decades, Challenger grew to include more than 20 schools in several Western states, and Baker estimates that more than 10,000 students have studied under its banner.
For her achievements, Baker received the 2006 Woman Business Owner of the Year award from the Salt Lake Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. presented the award Friday at the first annual NAWBO U event at the Little America Hotel.
"It's a real honor and a real joy to be able to salute someone who is not just an innovator, an entrepreneur, a creative thinker, but someone who, in turn, has influenced and impacted the lives of countless young people," Huntsman said.
While not every woman finds inspiration in wasps, Baker said successful businesswomen share certain characteristics, and challenges.
"At my age, you look back on your life and you realize that all the 'stuff' doesn't matter anymore," Baker said. "Life should have been full of joy, getting up each day with vision, and accomplishing something you really loved to do."
Finding that passion, honing one's individual entrepreneurial vision and assembling the right business "team" is the challenge shared by Utah's women business owners and employees, Baker said. But challenges are meant to be met and conquered.
"Our search will never be complete" to discover how best to deliver our product, she said. "But the joy of learning is to meet the challenge, and with careful guidance, achieve."
Celeste Gleave, president and chief executive of Fyve Star Inc., a company that makes and distributes products for the airline industry, said that now, more than ever, there are advantages to being a woman in business. Gleave was the keynote speaker at the NAWBO event.
"The trend for the new millennium is that women are assets to their companies," Gleave said. "We're starting our own companies. We're creating jobs for other people. We're bringing new contacts. We're building ideas. We're redefining the roles of women, and paving the way for our daughters, and their daughters. We all have a lot to look forward to, and we all, every one of us, have contributions to make."
It won't happen by chance, Gleave said, and likely it won't be easy. But, she maintained, it can be done.
"If you can dream it, that's the beginning," she said. "If you can do it, that's when the dream grows. If you live it, it will develop. If you dedicate to it, it will deliver."
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com