“We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.” Although that quote was from Paul McGill to Emma Harte in the novel A Woman of Substance, it could also be attributed to its author, the legendary Barbara Taylor Bradford.  That quote is often one I reference when talking to friends and colleagues about the choices we make in life.

When I learned of Bradford’s passing in late November, I stopped to reflect on not only the fictional world of Emma Harte, but what that book meant to me. As Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins told the BBC, “A Woman of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it.” I can honestly say it changed mine. To quote Jenny Seagrove who played Emma Harte in the acclaimed miniseries, “Emma Harte had changed their life in some way, [like] to start a business.”

I’m not sure how or exactly when I was introduced to A Woman of Substance. But from its very first page, I was riveted to the story about a young woman, Emma Harte, who rises from her station as a near impoverished servant to head an international retail and real estate empire. Bradford’s story, if anything, instilled in me that with hard work and determination anything can be possible.

In my world, I always wanted to have a publishing company of my own. I launched International Figure Skating magazine in 1994 and built it to be the world’s largest magazine for the sport. It held that achievement until 2004 when I lost the company in a takeover. While I can’t “shift the blame” from that loss, I pushed myself onto other projects including the production of two feature films that are now available worldwide and have achieved numerous “accolades” from film festivals and the media.

Barbara Taylor Bradford wasn’t just a novelist, she was the creator of worlds. The character Emma Harte and her journey were chronicled in several novels. Perhaps the best adaptations of a book to screen miniseries I’ve ever seen, was when her novels A Woman of Substance and sequel Hold the Dream went from print to TV.  With the younger Emma Harte played by the beautifully talented Seagrove with the senior version portrayed by the six-time Academy Award nominated actress Deborah Kerr, it was this transformation from script to screen that introduced this world to millions more that may not have read the novels.

When I purchased my first home in the 1990s, it was a traditional colonial. I modeled my formal living room after Emma Harte’s at Pennistone Royal. While my home wasn’t an estate like Pennistone, that formal living room was a place of pride for me. This bit of reality also reminds me of the miniseries when the famed department store Harrods in London allowed its sign to be replaced with Harte’s.

Inspiration to succeed, to strive forward, to make a difference, can come from anywhere. We are truly shaped by the world we grew up in. Then there is the world we want to live in. We learn from our past to shape our future, to hopefully a positive one. We know we will face great trials and tribulations along the way. We know that life is not a novel, but it is from novels that we can aspire, learn and hope. Because as Barbara Taylor Bradford named her third book in the Emma Harte series, there is one thing we all strive to do—

To Be the Best