10 Important Things About Success They Don’t Teach You at School

Since day one, 10 Digital Ladies has toiled relentlessly to celebrate the vast range of unique career stories women have to tell — across a whole array of industries and disciplines. These stories go beyond the cookie-cutter definition of success; eg that you’re only doing really well if you make it to the board of a FTSE350 company, or that you have to worship at the altar of career at the expense of everything else.

The founders of the group (Nina Lovelace, Sally Foote, Laila Edy, me, and our chair Juliet Bauer) fervently believe that success is personal, and that sharing individual, personal stories — wobbly bits and all — is a huge source of inspiration to other women — and men too.

What our 10 award winners all have in common is that they have defined and achieved their own vision of success

This week we took this ethos to the next level at the 10 Digital Ladies awards in association with, EY Women. Fast forward. We raised a glass to innovators and career portfolioists, entrepreneurs and board members. Most of all we were inspired. Here are 10 Important Things About Success They Don’t Teach You at School:

1. You don’t have to be a technologist to be successful in digital. Emily Forbes, Founder of Seenit, and winner of our Entrepreneur category took her training in the Arts and used it to launch a startup. “I think it’s a common misconception that people from and Arts and creative background wouldn’t be able to set up a commercial tech company, but I think that’s completely wrong, the training I had at art school enabled me to think bigger, break down barriers and not be afraid to disrupt.”
2. Understand your unique offering, says winner of the Board Member category 2017, Christina Scott, CTO, News UK; the fact that you are different is a huge credit to you and can work to your advantage. “Recognise what you bring. Anyone can do it if they have the desire and passion.”
3. Define your own role, says winner of the inspiring Specialist award, Lindsay Ratcliffe, Director of Customer Experience, HomeServe. “There have been times when I’ve gone into organisations, and they’ve had specific roles, specific jobs, and they’ve tried to shoehorn me into those because they’ve not necessarily known what to do with me. And actually, I’ve resisted really hard; to say, ‘no, this is the breadth of what I do, this is the value I bring, this is what I can deliver’. Keep true to the core of you.”
4. Stay relevant to your customer. Our Leader For Good award winner focuses on how she can help her organisation really ‘think digital’. Amanda Neylon, Programme Director for Digital Delivery, NHS asks daily how she can make the most of technology to help patients. Whether you’re a charity or a business, she says that harnessing passion, being pragmatic and making decisions are key ingredients for success. “It always comes back to ‘Who’s your audience? What do you need them to do? What do they want to do? How do you use technology to do that?’”
5. Get rid of the blockers. Our Agent for Change winner says, “try to remove those inside voices that hold you back and grab the opportunities as they come, try to remove the barriers and take a risk.” Bénédicte Autret, Head of Strategic Relationships for News & Publishers in the UK & Benelux at Google has a ‘personal advisory board’ who she calls on for help: “whenever it comes to making big decisions in my life, whether it’s career led or personal life, I have three trusted people from different backgrounds that I go to and we evaluate whether I’m making the right decision.”
6. Put yourself out there. Award winner in the Non-Executive Director category, Claudia Arney is Non-Executive Director for Aviva, Halfords, Derwent London & The Premier League. She says, “one piece of advice I’d give to people wanting to move into a non executive role is get board experience somewhere; start smaller, join the board of charity, join the board of governors of your local school, join the board of inspectors of your local prison; do something that’s useful and that talks to you and your passions, and that will give you board experience. That is your leg up to the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Just start.”
7. Feel the fear, and do it anyway. “Many people told me, you won’t like it when you go off into the commercial world, it’s going to be tough for you. And it was tough,” says winner of the Innovator award, Kate Bradshaw, VP Digital Strategy for the international division of Scripps Networks Interactive. “But the reward of taking the risk and pushing yourself to somewhere where you are quite uncomfortable is hugely beneficial… even if it doesn’t feel like that at the time.”
8. Live your life to the full. Winner of our Consultant category, Tara Hein-Phillips, Managing Director, Vestar Consulting says, “Live your life, follow your passions, do what interests you, read books, go to the theatre; do things that expand your mind and open your heart!”
9. Have fun. Winner of our Career Portfolioist category juggles being Managing Director of tech company, Softwire, with being a film & theatre actor; Zoe Cunningham, says, “What really works for me is that I feel really in charge of my own career and my own choices, which is very empowering and it makes everything much more fun. If you are choosing to do something and enjoying doing it, is a different experience from if you feel you are forced to do it.”
10. You don’t have to be an expert. Priya Lakhani, Founder CEO, CENTURY Tech and winner of our inspiring newcomer category says she has built all her businesses from really understanding a problem and wanting to find a solution to fix it. Don’t hold yourself back — she says: “I built an AI platform, and I know nothing about coding or technology, although I do have an introduction to Python in my handbag. So, I don’t think women should shy away from starting something just because they don’t know absolutely everything about that career. It’s just a really great journey to go on. Go for it!”

If you know an inspiring woman you would like to nominate for next year’s awards, please post your suggestions here!

*Follow our 10 Digital Ladies LinkedIn page for updates, and videos of the winners | And you can sign up for our 2017 Meetups now!*