“Do the things that you think you can’t do. It’s easy to say , “Oh it doesn’t pay enough money or I can’t do that” but you should.” – 40-something, married, mom, finance, Stamford, CT
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“Don’t look at the job you have now as the last thing you are going to do. There are a lot of reset buttons in life. You don’t realize that in your twenties. You think everything is narrowing but it’s not.” – 40-something, entrepreneur, NYC
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“Look at the choices in your career…in life… as different branches of your tree. You can always jump from branch to branch as long as you have a solid base.” – 40-something, architect, NYC
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“The best piece of advice I have ever gotten is ..’If you are not doing something you are a little afraid of, it is not worth doing.’ I have changed careers three times and this has always helped me take that next leap.” – 40-something entrepreneur
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“Don’t apologize – just say it. A lot of times I found myself saying, I don’t know if this is right, but….. It may be a bad idea but it could lead somewhere. You have permission to have bad ideas.” – marred, Mom, business development, Oakland, CA
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“If you don’t ask for it, you don’t know you can’t get it. The worst thing that happens is that they can say no. And always ask for a review. Be prepatred to say what you have contributed and to ask for what you want. It may be scary at first but then you know where you are going.” – 40-something, married, marketing, NYC
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“Don’t be intimated. Everybody is human. No matter how confident or important someone seems, they have flaws and they make mistakes. They just have trouble admitting they may mistakes. So don’t let other people’s ‘confidence’ disarm your own…and know that you are not alone!”– 40-something, married, mom, education, Los Angeles, CA
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And lastly many people say to follow your dream…but to assess whether it is a passion that has a customer so that you can make money. If not …find another passion! But this woman has another caveat on following your dream… make sure it is your dream.
“I teach and mentor young women at the institute of music and the funny thing is that I have talked a few women out of this dream because I can tell it is not their dream. I can tell there is a barrier there. When it’s not yoru dream it gets harder and harder and it’s really not that fun. That was it for me. I read this quote somewhere that I toll my students.
‘You know it is your dream if you enjoy the process and almost don’t even care about the result. You are so passionate about the doing of it the result almost doesn’t matter. and you know it is not your dream but it is somebody else’s dream for you if you endure the process for the result.’
I think it is a remarkable litmus test. Those are thing things that get the best results because the process is the result. If you are just pacing through the process, it is not going to come to much. – 40-something, married, mom, musician, professor, Cleveland, OH