“ WEEK 1 / 133 – 133 WEEKS TO SUCCESS ”
After taking some time to finally settle in to realizing that I am making the transition from being a nice, young college girl to a determined and focused college graduate and budding career woman, I knew that I craved for more. I have always lived by the philosophy to kill others with kindness, to put my best foot forward and turn the other cheek. If there’s anything I’ve learned from working in Manhattan for the past few months, it’s that being nice is necessary, but being nice can only get you so far.
One day, perusing the career building and management section at Barnes and Noble (because despite my thirsty love for technological advancement, I am a total diehard for traditional paperback novels), I noticed one book which stuck out to me. It was the revised and updated revision of Nice Girls STILL Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel, PhD. As of this writing, I am at an entry-level, nonsupervisory role. There are a total of 133 classic mistakes in this book which many brilliant, driven, and ambitious women do make in their personal lives and their careers. The key point is that although this women have the tools and resources they need to get ahead, they are being held back by factors which they, for the most part, control.
The main factor holding many of these women, including myself, back? We’re too nice. As Pablo Picasso once said, “ There are only two types of women—goddesses and doormats.” Are you a goddess or a doormat? The problem here is that women who may dare to consider themselves a goddess are said to be high maintenance or have an inflated ego. I say: so what? You can be confident about yourself, have respect for yourself and others, without being a megalomaniac. It’s about balance, and balance is where we walk the thin line between self-reliant goddess versus doleful doormat.
The metaphorical light bulb went off in my head. I am a young, recent college graduate with my first big girl job. What can I do to take the next steps to where I want to be? I asked myself where I wanted to go from here, and I knew with confidence that I want to be, above all else, financially stable and comfortable so that I can pursue what I want to do with my personal life as well. This means setting the proper foundation for a marriage, a home, a child, and a new family to call my own.
Here it goes: the new adventure I embark on for the transition from naïve girl to working woman. I call it: 133 Weeks to Success. Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board.
The first tip for this week is to stop pretending that business is not a game, because guess what? Business is a game. The entire world’s a stage, and we are all merely players. The question is if you want to be the pawn or the queen.
Cheers,
Kelly
@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales
Alpha Female Society. 