The Legacy of Being Stubborn As F❤️ck
- Feb 13
- 3 min read
By Adriana L. Cowdin
For most of my life, I believed legacy was built through hustle, titles, and relentless ambition, until my body, my life, and my purpose forced me to rewrite the story entirely.
I was the woman who outworked everyone. The first in, the last out. I had senior executive roles in Fortune 500 companies, was a successful entrepreneur, won prestigious awards, and had the luxury lifestyle that it afforded. Hustle gave me power, independence, and results. Or did it?
One thing I know for sure is it nearly cost me everything.
In my 30s and 40s, I was climbing the corporate ladder at a pace that people train for an Ironman. Obsessively. Compulsively. Sacrificing everything else for the next milestone.
And then my body pulled a hostile takeover on me. One day I was running the show and the next I was being dragged to the boardroom of survival. Literally.
In 2016, I spent more time in the hospital than I did at home. I was fighting for my life, living on feeding tubes to nourish my skeletal body, narcotics to make the pain bearable, and nausea meds to stop the vomiting. Within the last decade, I’ve had dozens of surgeries, including the Whipple (if you want to lose your appetite, Google it). They’ve removed my pancreas, two-thirds of my stomach, my gallbladder, most of my small intestines, and done a cell transplant into my liver.
By 2025, I’d been diagnosed with more than 30 chronic conditions—Chronic Pancreatitis, Lupus, Addison’s, Diabetes, and liver disease. Illness didn’t knock politely; it bulldozed everything.
I’ve survived multiple code blues. I’ve said goodbye to my best friend, my favorite person in the world, my husband, Eric. These moments have a way of reminding you that titles, awards, and luxury goods mean nothing when it comes to real legacy.
I had to face the question: If this is it… what did it all mean?
That reckoning gave birth to my book: Stubborn As F❤️ck: 13 Certain Truths to Rise, Reclaim, and Reinvent Your Life. The 13 Certain Truths in SAF are real, lived truths.
Eric and I met mere months before my body broke down and rewrote our life plans. This incredible man who fell in love with a polished executive loved me even with my broken body and far less predictable life. He didn’t love my title, bank account, or lifestyle. He loved me.
He’s the reason I’m still alive. That, and I’m too damn stubborn to die. I was given a 25% chance to live until 2021. Here I am, still fighting. I won’t pretend it’s easy. I live on a feeding tube. My organs (what’s left of them) don’t work. Getting out of bed is a conscious decision. But I’m a fighter and that’s the legacy I’ve chosen to leave behind, through this book and the movement it’s launched.
I didn’t write Stubborn As F❤️ck to inspire the masses. I wrote it to reach one person. The one barely holding it together who reads my story and thinks, “If she can wake up with resilience and gratitude, maybe I can too.”
Legacy is built in the moments no one claps for. When you make someone feel seen. When you give them permission to exhale. When you show up with grace instead of ego. That’s the legacy I’m building now, one stubborn, honest day at a time. And it's not just my legacy anymore. It’s our, mine and Eric’s.
My legacy is how I live today, in this body, with the people who matter.
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