Diana Burgess’ life after near-death
SHE has undergone open heart surgery, a difficult marriage and tasted poverty; but these things have only strengthened Diana Burgess’ resolve to reach her fullest potential and to help others do the same.
Burgess, a talent management consultant at Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB), has helped to unearth the innate skills of the young and the old alike, and her journey through life’s challenging situations testifies to one’s ability to surpass human expectations and to defy medical boundaries.
Just a year ago, the talent consultant was diagnosed with a rare heart disorder after doctors found that her heart was different from 99.5 per cent of the general population. She had swollen lungs, a huge hole in her heart, her vena cava was located on the left side of her heart instead of the right, and her pulmonary veins were twisted, resulting in the mixing of oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood. The doctor who conducted her open-heart surgery to correct the problems, conveyed the seriousness of her illness when he told her that persons didn’t survive past puberty with her condition.
“The doctor said he doesn’t know how I was alive,” she told All Woman. “They had to take my heart out of my body, put it on a table, do all those repairs and put it back in.”
This for her was truly a miracle considering the fact that she had ran seven half marathons (13.1 miles) prior to January 2010 when she did the open-heart surgery. She had also been treated for asthma since the age of 13 based on the misdiagnosis of her condition by a number of doctors.
But just a cursory perusal of Burgess’ life would suggest that she is used to defying the odds. She and three of her four sisters spent most of their lives off Waltham Park Road and then the volatile Seaward Drive area off Molynes Road, St Andrew where they were exposed to violence on several occasions. Her mother, fed up with the constant gun feuds and her dead-end job as a domestic helper, had at one point started making preparations to relocate her family to St Mary where Burgess was born, but that was met with resistance by the then 13-year-old.
“When I thought about it, I said ‘no, I am not going’. That was when I decided I am going to test this whole concept called faith. I grew up in church and everything and I said if I need faith ever, it is right now,” Burgess recalled.
Burgess prayed daily, but it wasn’t until the day before the move while she was walking with her mother after carrying out their weekly Saturday morning ritual of dusting the church benches, that God answered her prayer. A lady approached her mother and offered her a place to stay in a nicer neighbourhood in Kingston.
So the teenager was able to continue her schooling at the Tarrant Comprehensive High School and upon graduating, worked as a domestic helper. She later got what she considered to be a lucrative job, helping persons to fit shoes at Lees Shoe store. When her opportunity came to get her first office job at the now defunct Montrose Printery, she didn’t think twice about leaving the store behind.
It was while working at the printery that Burgess got somewhat of an epiphany. She became enthralled with the idea of working at American Airlines, although she had never travelled outside of Jamaica and did not possess the qualifications to earn her a position at the airline company.
Once again Burgess acted on faith, quit her job at the printery and took up temporary jobs instead. She also moved out of her mother’s house and relocated to Havendale in St Andrew.
“About two days after I moved, I realised that my neighbour who was living on the same compound was a manager at American Airlines, you can just imagine when I found that out, resumé gone over to him,” Burgess shared excitedly.
It took a while for her to get a favourable response from the airline, but when it came, Burgess had no qualms about packing up her stuff to relocate to Dallas, USA, for training to become a passenger service representative.
She remained in the post until she took up the position as client service representative at JMMB. With no formal training in finance, Burgess had to learn on the job.
“I can’t tell you that ‘oh I went to high school and I did CXCs and then I did A’ levels and then I did that’. I didn’t have that opportunity, so a lot of my learning is learning from life and from people around me,” she said.
Formal training did come later, though, as Burgess pursued a leadership and management degree at an international university and did short courses along the way to upgrade her qualifications. She eventually became a cultural development and training officer before going into consultancy which would allow her to focus on more personal goals.
One such goal is to launch her company Much More Development with two of her closest friends later this year. The company is going to focus on analysing the strengths and building the character of other companies and individuals. Burgess intends to partner with JMMB human resource director Donna Duncan Scott and marketing expert Beverley Wellington-Thompson to build the self-esteem and confidence of individuals so they can reach their potential.
“The idea of Much More Development is because there is much more possible for human beings and what we do is really to get to the heart of who people are, so that they can accomplish their best self and get much, much more,” she said.
“We focus a lot on strengths and strengths discovery and how we use the strengths of the different individuals to build a cohesive team in all of that. So I have done a lot of work and training all over the place just trying to get that together.”
Another personal goal for Burgess is to complete her book which she is currently working on. The book is expected to document some of Burgess’ pitfalls as well as her mountain top moments in life. It will also explore the whole concept of love and forgiveness, which the talent consultant learnt while going through a marriage which failed.
The fact that she is working on developing a new company and writing a book has not detracted much from the work she does at JMMB. The company is a major sponsor of the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) mentorship programme, which was launched by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica in eight inner-city communities last December.
The programme has created an opportunity for Burgess to assist young people to build their confidence and understand their strengths. She recalls how the group of young people she was responsible for helping with their orientation into the company broke down during their first meeting with her as they recounted the challenges they faced living in the inner-city.
During that first meeting, Burgess was able to get the young people to unearth their talents and change their psychological mindsets. So effective was her intervention that she was later contacted by YUTE to replicate her methods in other areas of their programme. She is also sought after by school counsellors who invite her to do sessions with their students.
Burgess is still amazed at how her life has unfolded and the tremendous opportunities afforded her over the years. She was at pains to point out during the All Woman interview that she couldn’t take credit for her accomplishments.
“I didn’t have any ambition. It sounds bad to say, but I’ve never ever had a dream to be anything. The only thing I know I wanted to do was to have a positive impact on people and to add value everywhere I go. That’s the only dream I’ve ever had,” she said.
She is about two months away from her 50th birthday, but Burgess has already posted the speech to mark this milestone on her Facebook page.
“Today I give thanks to God of course; and yes, I know there is a bigger reason for allowing me to be here,” she shared with her family and friends on the social website.
“I truly believe that when we face challenges in life that are far beyond our own power, it’s an opportunity to build on our faith, inner strength, and our character. I’ve learned that the attitude we adopt when facing the challenges holds the key to the outcome in the end,” she said.
