By Julie Tingley, The KNOW Women
Still in control: how a decade of isolation in a third-world country and today’s natural weather threats propelled this founder/ CEO into the life she was meant to live.
Let’s take it back two decades. The year is 2001 and we are all seated at the same table (as we should be). It’s time to invest in future female leadership. Women that would defy all odds. Ladies that would look darkness square in the eye and give it a wink. If we were betting on who among us would be leading a team of physicists, engineers, and programmers at the helm of major break through innovations in protection against severe weather and public safety threats twenty years later- it would be a risk to put our money on Tami Fitzpatrick. In fact, the name probably wouldn’t come up on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as she left the U.S. for a different life 10 years prior.
Fortunately for us, we didn’t bet against her as we would have miscalculated and underestimated the power of this generation’s best comeback story. And, ladies, here’s a sidenote—at no point ever is the risk too high to bet on one another. The year is now 2021, and it is timely and essential to KNOW Tami Fitzpatrick.
A risk-taker, a results-maker. A mother with great responsibility and unwavering resolve. A rebirth marked by recovery, refresh, and the reward of living a life that was always meant to be. She is still in control and she wants you to KNOW how to overcome your setbacks too. An investment in each of us this month—meet Tami Fitzpatrick of Entropy Technology Design.
KNOWing you were made for more and could take back your life…
One moment comes to mind that impacted me most. It was around the fifth year of the fifteen years I lived in Lebanon. I was terribly lost and unhappy. I loved my husband and believed in our wedding vows despite the emotional neglect, and the many things wrong with the life I was living there. I was isolated and had lost my identity. I spent all of my time earnestly trying to please his family thinking that this would somehow help. I desperately wanted to fit in, feel loved and accepted and not arrogantly judged behind my back and to my face as they spoke among themselves knowing I didn’t understand (or so they thought). I was silently miserable and too isolated and confused to cry for help or tell my family what was happening to me. I didn’t want them to know what a mistake I had made leaving them, my career and my life in the states. Every moment was deeply painful. The only thing which brought me joy were my children. If you’ve ever been in a place you knew you didn’t belong but you had no easy options to get out, you tend to sink. I was in a third-world country and simple things like being able to call my parents was often out of my reach. Everything was a facade. I was expected to pretend I was happy, rich, and content. I believed that I should hide the perpetual pain I was in.
It must have been written all over my face because one evening, as we were visiting my husband’s sister, her husband’s kind-hearted brother gently took me aside and briefly spoke these words, “Make your life what you want. Stop trying to please others. Please yourself.” Considering that I typically felt awkward and alone at these family gatherings, this single moment of kindness has remained with me to this day. I was shocked that he even took the time to offer this advice or even notice since no one else seemed to. I never forgot his kindness. Perhaps the most precious piece of advice was realizing that advice can come from the most unexpected people and places. It found me there when I needed it the most. Kismet.
KNOWing the world as a single mother of three wouldn’t be without its storms and the occasional rainbow…
I had just evacuated in the back of a military helicopter with my three children with only one suitcase each. As an expat I had been living in Lebanon since 1991 and working at the US Embassy in Beirut for the past several years. I was also coming out of a traumatic and heartbreaking marriage. It was 2006 and Israel and Hezbollah had gone to war. After helping to support the evacuation efforts of the thousands of US citizens in Lebanon, which is a story in and of itself, I asked the Ambassador if I could be on the last chopper out. He granted my request and after what felt like an eternity, I found myself back home. I experienced almost the same amount of culture shock coming back as I did 15 years earlier after leaving my career, family, and life for love. A princess-like life had been promised…but not delivered. That’s another story (upcoming book) filled with love, deception, isolation, trauma, facades and rebirth.
Once back home I had less than two weeks to find a home, furniture, car and clothing and to get my children in school. Next, I filed for divorce and with no child support or alimony I set out to make a life for my children and I. It was around that time that I met a talented physicist and inventor of a handheld lightning detector. He offered me a job in sales. Not a course I anticipated, but it felt right. This turned into the founding of a new business and myself taking on the role of CEO and learning every factor of the business from the ground up. Domestic and international sales (to over 22 countries) reached $3 Million and opportunities to expand the technology into other applications were developed but my creditor didn’t agree with our vision or the opportunity we had built, so we were starved out. After a year of devastating hardship, I made the decision to get back into the ring, but to develop completely new technology capable of reading Mother Nature’s mind when she has an attitude. This time, however, with a team of expert engineers who could support the vision and mission I had in mind. Today, we’re working with the Pentagon and DoD to continue with the research and development of our VLF (Very Low Frequency) magnetic field sensors, software and hardware under the brand name of Nimbus Vision.
KNOWing that success comes from staying the course, and if you can do it, we can too…
I’m a prime example of how staying the course can pay off. Lead with honesty and integrity. We start our own business, career or job to do these things: Make money. Be happy. Save the world. This small-town Iowa girl who ended up in the Middle East who endured over a decade of daily heartache, isolation and trauma went on to accomplish anything I set my mind to. I’ve endured abuse, bullying and neglect, but all of it has made me who I am today. All of it has taught me how to be grateful for those lessons and to find love where there was once bitter resentment and anger. I’m living proof that no matter how bad it gets, how much you feel there is nothing left for you, your dreams are shattered, stolen or stomped on…STAY THE COURSE BECAUSE YOU HOLD THE CARDS TO YOUR LIFE. When you’re faced with a challenge, hold your head high because you are brilliant and beautiful. You are one of a kind. No one can do what you do. Own it. Honor yourself and go do what makes YOU happy! If you don’t…who will?
KNOWing now the DO’s & DON’Ts that come with starting a business that you wish someone had shared with you…
DON’T #1: Don’t think you have to be perfect, strong, and in charge! It’s absolutely acceptable to lean on others as you climb that mountain. Thinking you’ve got all the answers is unrealistic.
Believing that you need to run your show like a commando will likely lead to failure and disappointment. Honesty and compassion will win every time.
DON’T #2: Don’t think you have to play by everyone else’s rules. When you’re told that “this is how it’s done.” and you don’t agree, dig deeper and see if your way has depth. People don’t typically like change or unknowns, but true entrepreneurs live in that space. If you’ve got a wild brand idea…embrace it. Be Smart, but be YOU.
DO #1: Do be ready to recreate yourself if necessary. I’ve been an entrepreneur all of my life and I’ve recreated and adapted myself when necessary. It started with modeling, radio and television work, my own advertising agency and a leap to live in a third world country at the peak of my young career! Once returning I went into lightning detection. What? Yup, but it felt right and I trusted my intuition. Connect and listen to your soul.
DO #2: Do look at ALL of your mistakes and laugh! They were necessary. Learn. Laugh and move on!
KNOWing that the future of technology is in the right woman’s hands…
All of our innovations at Entropy Technology Design are focused on the goal of increasing personal safety and productivity while decreasing liability. We’re focused on disrupting the way man-made and nature’s severe weather threats have historically been offered by introducing a new layer and frequency of detection. Technology and climate change threaten our world today — our personal data, our lives, we’re creating passive sensors that will sense the threats coming — threats of malicious attack or spy drones with spy cameras and bombs, from protecting you in your own backyard to public events and our warfighters. Our sensors provide an invisible layer or frequency of protection for the greater good. Final phase will halt the threat with our non-kinetic, non-lethal disablement technology.
Looking ahead…at the right time, I plan to focus on developing a new technology to, in very simple terms, detect how our thoughts affect our health. Our theory and initial approach will be to develop a technology capable of detecting and mapping the human biofield. This will ultimately produce new, actionable data on the real-time function and pattern of the biofield and its relationship to activity of the nervous system. You can learn more at: https://www.accelerated-consciousness.com
CONNECT WITH TAMI
Company name : Entropy Technology Design, Inc.
Email Address : tfitzpatrick@entropydesigns.
Website URL TamiFitzpatrick (tamifitzpatrick.com)
Instagram URL : @tgifitzpatrick
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
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