sHERO — Powerful & Prepared, Not Pretty and Perfect — Verses for a Million Dollar Woman

I would like to pen down conclusion of my professional life in minimum possible words. Following are the guidelines I wish I knew earlier during my college days.

When you start from a country like ours, where the birth of a girl child is not celebrated and is seen as a setback or a tragedy and she is a liability to a family, it is very tough to find pride in your own self, confidence in your own being and in your action. Probably the only expectation from a girl child is that she grows to be a presentable young woman who can get a decent spouse. And hence, we don’t see women occupying the highest positions in a billion dollar company.

We have enormous successful start-ups as on date but a few are owned by women. The only reason being, fear and capability of not taking the risks. Most women settle for a government job or rather secured job or some being inopportune become a homemaker against their will. Only a few swim upstream, go against the norms and pave their own path of legacy. And everyone witnesses them as they shine brightest and stand out of line.

“Breaking the Glass Ceiling” is a phrase often used for successful women. The wiki meaning of breaking the glass ceiling is “an unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps women from rising to the upper rungs of Corporate Ladder, regardless of their qualification or achievement”. But the question is why a woman has to break a Glass Ceiling when she has the ability to shatter it? Why a woman wants to touch the sky when she is efficient enough to rule it. Probably the answer is fear.

Most often woman doesn’t allow the ability to dream beyond her imagination. Woman doesn’t allow herself to think about her future. A woman should believe that she has everything already in her will. To be able to be and achieve her dreams, she has to be fearless. One should be who she wants to be. One should fight for her dreams because it’s only she who will fight for her dreams. No one else will fight for her dreams except herself.

A woman should believe in herself and all that she is. She must know that there is something inside her that is greater than any obstacle. She should believe in hard work and luck but it’s only 1st that leads to 2nd. She should believe in courage, courage to pursue her dreams, courage to bounce back with full thrust when she is at her lowest.

And most importantly, a woman should not fear about people’s perspective about her. Because one can be ripest, juiciest and sweetest Orange in the world but there’s still going to be people who hate Orange. No matter what a woman does, someone will always be unhappy. Just ignore them and keep moving ahead.

Some Essential Quotes that guides female Entrepreneur who want to go big are:

- “ I AM NOT PERFECT, I AM STRONGER THAN THAT”

- “STRONG IS THE NEW PRETTY”

- “SHE WASN’T LOOKING FOR A KNIGHT, SHE WAS LOOKING FOR A SWORD”

- SHE IS A WARRIOR BY DAY PLAYING HER PART, BUT SHE SLEPT AT NIGHT WITH WISHES IN HER HEART”

- “A BRUISE IS A LESSON AND EACH LESSON MAKES US BETTER”

- “LEARN TO FIGHT ALONE”

- “EITHER YOU SACRIFICE FOR YOUR DREAMS OR YOU SACRIFICE YOUR DREAM”

- “STRONG WOMEN WEAR THEIR PAIN LIKE STILETTOES. NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT HURTS, ALL YOU SEE IS THE BEAUTY OF IT”

- “BEAUTY MAY BE DANGEROUS, BUT INTELLIGENCE IS LETHAL”

- “BE YOUR OWN KIND OF BEAUTIFUL”

- “NOT JUST PRETTY, PRETTY TOUGH”

These quotes have worked wonders for me but the most important one I ever read was “QUOTES DOESN’T WORK UNTILL YOU DO”.

There are few books that can be referred for a better clarification and perspective. Below mentioned are their names:

1) Million Dollar Women — by Julia Pimsleur

2) Follow Every Rainbow — by Rashmi Bansal

3) Grit — by Angela Duckworth

4) Lioness Arising — by Lisa Bevere

5) Girls with a Swords — by lisa Bevere

6) Do Cool Shit — by Miki Agarwal

7) Built to Last — by Jim Collins

8) Good to Great — by Jim Collins

9) The Outsiders — by William Thorndike

10) Zero to One — by Peter Thiel

11) Great at Work — by Morten Hansen

12) Master Oppurtunity and make it Big — by Richard Rothman

13) Making it Happen — by John Harvey-Jones

14) Troubleshooter — by John Harvey-Jones

Just believe in yourself and keep moving ahead.