What it means to be part of Chicas Poderosas
Last year, I was asked 3 basic questions (and no, they weren’t marriage proposals):
* Are you interested in being a Chicas Poderosas leader in your country/city?
* Are you comfortable co-working with a team and organize at least one event per year?
* Are you available to come to Stanford for a Chicas Poderosas summit?
I said “yes” to all three of them. Little did I know these answers would change my life.
The person asking me these questions was marianamourasantos, and as always, she had a plan. She wanted to take Chicas Poderosas to the next level, and that meant bringing more than 30 people to a unique event called “Chicas Poderosas Stanford”, a rather unorthodox summit where we all gathered to learn about the most diverse topics (VR, Design Thinking, Drones and Journalism, improv, lab-grown beef, etc.), and of course, discuss the future of Chicas Poderosas.
Nothing has been the same ever since. And that’s the best part of it all. Embracing this challenge has led me to the most unexpected destinations: Stanford, Rome for The 19 Million Project, and now, New York. Today is my first day in this dream city as one of Chicas Poderosas’ 2016 fellows. I’ll join the amazing staff at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for a month, just enough time to change a person’s life.
What I’ve learned from Chicas Poderosas
Any member of Chicas Poderosas can tell you there’s a “before and after” they joined this glocal and uncannily ambitious project. And since Chicas is about getting stuff done, some of the most valuable lessons listed here are named after our events.
- You Have More Power Than You Think
This was the name of our Stanford event, and it became one of my personal mantras afterwards. In Chicas you learn that nothing is off-limits when it comes to innovating, generating new value and becoming a better version of yourself. For instance, last year was the first time I ever heard about VR. It seemed otherworldly, terrifying and fascinating at the same time. I never would’ve thought that in 6 months I’d be co-producing my first 360 videos and VR experiences with the gifted team of ÑoÑo; or that a year after Chicas Stanford, I’d collaborate with Ñoño, Wingu, and Dónde Quiero Estar so that 10 public hospitals in Argentina could incorporate VR to the treatment of patients in chemotherapy.
So, yes, you do have more power than you think: not because of you, but because of the people who support you in this project. We are Chicas Poderosas because we stand together as a community. We are glocal, and we rely on our members . Why do we work as a community? Because empowering each other requires a collective effort, as Holocracy masterfully explains:
“An environment where leaders have to empower others is fundamentally a disempowering environment — one which uses heroic top-down leadership to get beyond heroic top-down leadership, thus fundamentally relying on the very thing it seeks to transcend”
2. Ignite your Ideas
Two words: Design Thinking. You’ll never go back.
3. Fail Fast, Succeed Sooner
In response to a question about his missteps, Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed 10,000 times — I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” I will not argue with the man, finding out what won’t work is getting a step closer to something that will.
A simple “ta da” after every screw up goes a long way. Trust us (cc: Mayra Báez Jimeno). In Chicas Poderosas I learned to embrace failure as part of my own personal growth…and as a musician who was taught by classical, Russian teachers, that’s a big step.
Through design thinking you learn to have creative confidence. You trust that more ideas will come to you (and they always do), and you don’t cling to an idea longer than you have to, or as Brian Boyer once said, you learn to “kill your darlings”.
And above all, in Chicas Poderosas, you never stop moving. You iterate, iterate, and iterate some more.
“I am more than what you see”, said our event in FIU. Today you might see a fellow, but you’re looking at much more than that. I am representing dozens of women who wake up every day and dare to make a difference. I am also here because a disruptive community called HacksHackers Buenos Aires opened its doors to me back in 2012, and they’ve never stopped teaching me and challenging me to become a better person (and of course, a better geek).
It’s hard to define Chicas in one word: we’re a family, a network of overachievers, a bundle of innovation driven masterminds, that fun crew you see on IG that you really, really want to hang out with…a little bit of all. The beauty of it is that you’ll never walk alone.
My deepest gratitude to marianamourasantos, Chicas Poderosas, ICFJ and the Dow Jones Foundation for honoring me with this opportunity. Stay tuned for more info about this adventure :)
