Yesterday, I attended Tory Johnson’s “Spark and
Hustle”. It’s a program to help women entrepreneurs and to help other women
start their own businesses. Tory’s personal story was inspiring. I can’t possibly do her story justice, but
here’s the summary. She dropped out of college to become a news reporter, at
some point got laid off and still managed to have a family make her professional dreams come true.
You might even say that Tory achieved what Anne Marie Slaughter said was impossible in her Atlantic article. Tory Johnson "has it all". The wonderful thing is that her personal mission is to help other women
do the same.
She pointed out that most the reasons that people
identify for not succeeding in business are excuses. She lacks a college degree
and still has a successful business and a deal segment on “Good Morning America”. She pointed out that the person with the most
degrees is not necessarily the person with the brightest future. Success is a function of action.
She also shamed us. She said that “the magic doesn’t happen in
the dreaming phase. It happens in the doing phase.” She told the familiar story
of certain friends who have the perfect wedding planned. They have selected the
names of their kids. They have also identified what neighborhood they’d like to
live in with their husband. However, they aren’t dating anyone, aren’t looking
to date anyone and never go out. If they
proceed on that path their happy ending will likely remain a dream unless they
get super lucky. But you can’t take luck
to the altar or to the bank.
Tory reminded us that we need to “adjust for
reality”. The moment will never be perfect. We will never have enough time. We
will likely never have enough resources. And our children may not ever be the quiet,
obedient kind. (Actually, Tory didn’t
say that thing about the kids. That one
is all me!) She made me realize that all of us are in the same boat. The difference between Tory Johnson, Kris
Jenner, Bethenny Frankel, and Oprah is that they believed in their dreams
enough to take a chance and you and I are still dreaming.
In essence, Tory issued us a commandment, “Find your
spark and hustle to make it work!” In some ways I have two sparks, a project at
work that hasn’t taken off the way that I would have liked yet and this blog. I
owe it to myself to see how successful I can make each of them. Each are doing reasonably well but how
awesome it would be if I could make them great?!
Stay tuned as I continue to share my journey. Until next time, "Carpe Diem"!
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Me and my new very tall friends! (NOTE: I am wearing very high heels...)
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