Why It’s Called “Dare to Succeed”
The panic attacks in the company parking lot before work weren't just stress.
I was silently angry because everyone kept saying, 'just quit,' as if it were that simple.
Toxic workplaces need an exit plan. This is the place to build yours.
This is how I built mine: recognition to recovery.
I dared to see it.
For years, I told myself it was just a demanding job. That the chest pains in the company parking garage were stress, not a signal. That if I just worked harder, it would get better. It didn’t. Seeing it clearly meant admitting that the environment I’d invested a decade in was breaking me.
I dared to count the cost.
I looked at what staying had taken: my confidence, my health, and my sense of who I was. I looked at $130,000 in student debt that kept me chained to a paycheck I couldn’t afford to lose. I stopped minimizing and started measuring.
I dared to choose.
Not in one dramatic moment. I chose over months, over years. I chose to teach college courses on nights and weekends. I chose eighty-hour weeks. I chose to funnel every extra dollar toward the debt that was holding me in place.
I dared to move.
In September 2018, I made my final student loan payment. When a known toxic leader was assigned to my team shortly after, I executed my exit plan. I resigned.
I dared to begin again.
It took two more years to recover. To recognize myself in the mirror. To trust leadership again. To stop flinching when a colleague raised their voice. Recovery wasn’t a celebration; it was a journey.
That journey became my research. Over nearly two decades, I have surveyed and interviewed hundreds of professionals who walked their own version of the same five stages. Their stories confirmed what I’d lived: this path is hard, it’s real, and it’s possible.
If you want my full story, start here:
Part I: The Crisis. Did I Get Fired? The Badge.
Part II: The Coping. The Smell of Vulnerability. The Armor.
Part III: The Awakening. Get off the X. The Exit.
Hi, I’m Rhonda
I hold a PhD in organizational leadership. I’ve given a TEDx talk on toxic leadership and spoken at international conferences on its consequences. My research has identified 14 distinct toxic leadership behavior patterns and the psychological journey of navigating them.
But the credential that matters most is the one you just read: I’ve been where you are, and I found my way through.
Is This You?
This publication is for professionals who sense something is deeply wrong at work but feel stuck. You carry responsibilities that make walking away seem impossible: a mortgage, children, aging parents, and student loans. You’re not looking for someone to tell you to “just quit.” You’re looking for someone who understands why you can’t and who can help you see your options clearly.
It’s also for the people around you. If someone you love is in a toxic work situation and you don’t know how to help, there’s content here for you too.
And if you’ve already left and you’re rebuilding, you’re welcome here. Recovery is its own stage, and it deserves the same attention as the exit.
What this space is for
Dare to Succeed helps professionals see toxic workplaces clearly so they can choose their next move with confidence, not desperation.
It’s research-based content that brings together real stories from people who’ve lived through toxic leadership, patterns identified across hundreds of interviews, and practical tools for making decisions when clarity feels impossible. It’s not a place for venting. It’s not a motivational feed. It’s a structured system for figuring out where you are, what it’s costing you, and what you can do about it.
Why this isn’t just another workplace blog
Three things come together here that rarely exist in the same place.
I didn’t study toxic workplaces from the outside. I lived inside one for nearly a decade. That matters because I know the difference between a framework that looks good on paper and one that actually works when you’re in survival mode.
This isn’t my perspective alone. It’s built from the voices of hundreds of professionals across industries and demographics who experienced the same dynamics and found their way through. Their stories are the backbone of everything here.
And underneath it all is academic rigor. The patterns, tools, and frameworks come from doctoral-level qualitative research, not opinion. That’s what makes the difference between advice and evidence.
This is why I write here
Helping professionals see toxic workplaces clearly so they can choose their next move with confidence.
Not motivation. Clarity.
Not advice. Tools.
Not someone else’s answer. Your own, built on better information than you had before.
You’re not alone in this. And you have more options than you can see right now.
Not sure where to begin?
