Adopt Honesty and Passion
Advice from Women Who Lead
I’m the founder and former CEO of Zipcar, and recently, the author of a new book called Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism.
When I founded Zipcar, naysayers would tell me that it was impossible: people didn’t like to share; you couldn’t trust them; they would ruin cars; they wouldn’t be interested. But from my personal experience, most people I know are good people.
I want to live in a world where I can trust that people are good, and I’m going to build a company that follows that confidence I have in people.
For the last 10 or more years I have given a lot of talks, hundreds of them. Strikingly, when people email or tweet or comment about it afterwards, I get two compliments consistently: “You are so passionate and honest.”
After my initial “thank you!” reaction, I’m depressed. I ask my husband and my children, “Why are those unique and notable characteristics? Why are CEOs and leaders dispassionate about their work? Why is honesty commendable?”
Why ever do things that you don’t love? Why aren’t we all honest and genuine?
As we move forward and women accept more leadership roles, my hope is that we are in our work lives as we are in our family and friendship lives. That we have values we stick to, and we’re honest, and we have empathy, and we believe other people have those attributes too. That when we lead in the workplace; we do not have a different set of rules. I want us to be better than a lot of male leaders, and we set a new bar. That we have integrity — our personal and professional values are one and the same — and that we don’t become different when we are businesspeople.
So my hope for you, and my happiness in the promise of ever-larger numbers of women leaders, is that we all adopt an honest and passionate life, and build a world that we want to live in.
