That is awesome Tanya. That affiliate will surely go far.
Back in my running days I had a coach that said he would rather train someone with less natural talent but a great work ethic than anyone that was talented but had a poor work ethic. I think its great that affiliate managers recognize that.
Cool story here; back when computers were first making their way into high schools, kids would get a punch code that gave them allocated time to mess around with the computer. One kid figured out he could punch in random letter instead of his number code and it would let him go on for as long as he wanted.
He then started spending a lot of time working with the computer, staying until the school shut down etc and by the time he graduated he had logged thousands of hours. In college he decided to drop out and start his own computer company. His name was William Gates and his company was Microsoft.
Just a testament to what hard work and a good attitude can do for you in life.