Wednesday, September 30, 2009

IT IS THE HONOUR THAT COUNTS, NOT THE VOTES

My recent nomination and finalist ranking for the Women of Influence Award caught me by surprise.

Throughout my career I have been fortunate enough to receive several awards for my work. I remember receiving a flurry of awards shortly after my first cancer diagnosis, and I recall at the time joking that people wanted to celebrate my contributions before I “checked-out.”

Clearly that didn’t happen, and I am alive and well and still doing meaningful work to help women succeed.

But this award is different. When I first heard that I was a finalist, I was thrilled of course, but then I realized that I needed to ask people to vote for me. Not my comfort zone at all. First I’ve always had difficulty asking for help. Second, it felt presumptuous that people would even want to vote for me. So needless to say, I’ve found the whole process very uncomfortable.

And reality is there are some serious contenders in this “race” who truly are women of influence and who also have massive databases to draw on. So I have concluded that with this American Idol strategy, it’s not going to happen.

So I am letting this one go – I am voting myself off that island. You won’t be hearing any more from me as I don’t want to get further embroiled in this vote-seeking campaign.

At the end of the day, none of what we do in life is done to win awards. For me, it’s always been to make a difference - and that is honour enough.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

TURNING TRAGEDY INTO TRIUMPH

Over the last two weeks I have heard two amazing women share their story of how they turned a personal tragedy in their lives into something meaningful that will benefit others.

First was Joey Adler, CEO of the clothing retailer diesel Canada. When her husband died, she vowed that everyone’s life should count, especially children and she founded the One x One Foundation, with celebrity patron Matt Damon. This charity is making great headway in its attack on child poverty around the world, and in four years has raised $6 million to make sure that children’s basic needs are met. To learn more about the foundation, go to www.onexone.org


The second was Jane Roos, who is the Executive Director of CAN Fund, a charity that raises funds to support Canadian athletes so they can train and compete at the Olympics and other world competitions.

In Jane’s case, she had just graduated from high school and had her career in athletics all mapped out, when she was involved in a serious car accident. Her girlfriend died and she endured injuries to her back, thus ending her dreams of being an Olympic athlete.

But she had kept this dream alive for others, and founded the Canadian Athletes Now Fund to provide our athletes with direct financial support so they can afford better nutrition, coaching, new equipment, travel to competitions, etc,… With every donation, you are given the name of the athlete you have supported and receive a tax receipt. You can donate online at www.CanadianAthletesNow.ca

The word crisis in Chinese means danger or opportunity. Clearly these women have chosen to make their crisis an opportunity for others. I applaud them.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Building a community

I have one of those books that gives you the thought for the day. So I looked up September 15 – the evening of our first event of the season – and it seemed so appropriate that it said “A feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You’ll find that all human beings are just like you.”

It seemed fitting on a number of levels. First, one thing I have discovered in running Company of Women is that it doesn’t really matter what business you are in, the issues remain the same. We have an opportunity therefore to learn from each other.

Second, I liked the idea of “a feeling of warmth” because that is the atmosphere I want to create – that we are a community of women coming together to support one another.

The third reason is that last week we launched the book Faces of Opportunity, which tells the stories of women in developing countries. I’ve always known and understood that it takes courage and tenacity to succeed, but I am in total awe at the determination, resilience and joy of these women as they strive to create a better and brighter world for their children. Yes, they are human beings just like us and as women entrepreneurs, we should applaud and honour them.

And lastly, I have always believed that being honest and open creates the best of relationships.

Two sentences. And it says it all. These words so accurately describe what I dream and want for Company of Women.
I have one of those books that gives you the thought for the day. So I looked up September 15 – the evening of our first event of the season – and it seemed so appropriate that it said “A feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You’ll find that all human beings are just like you.”

It seemed fitting on a number of levels. First, one thing I have discovered in running Company of Women is that it doesn’t really matter what business you are in, the issues remain the same. We have an opportunity therefore to learn from each other.

Second, I liked the idea of “a feeling of warmth” because that is the atmosphere I want to create – that we are a community of women coming together to support one another.

The third reason is that last week we launched the book Faces of Opportunity, which tells the story of women in developing countries. I’ve always known and understood that it takes courage and tenacity to succeed, but I am in total awe at the determination, resilience and joy of these women as they strive to create a better and brighter world for their children. Yes, they are human beings just like us and as women entrepreneurs, we should applaud and honour them.

And lastly, I have always believed that being honest and open creates the best of relationships.

Two sentences. And it says it all. These words so accurately describe what I dream and want for Company of Women.

Monday, September 07, 2009

CAUTION - CHECK IT ALL OUT

First it was the email from Nigeria announcing an inheritance; then you’d won the lottery – and hard to believe some people still fell for it – part of their get-rich-scheme I guess, but these days, scam artists are getting much more sophisticated.

Take last week. My address book on Facebook was hacked into and friends received an email implying that I was stranded in London and needed financial help to get home. Given I am from the UK, this was quite plausible, however the colourful language used gave them away, and friends knew it wasn’t from me.

In sharing this tale with someone else, I learned of an even more sophisticated attempt to empty your bank account. My colleague was invited to speak at a conference in the UK, the invite seemed genuine, the location existed and they forwarded a professional looking contract, etc… She had done her due diligence and checked some of this out, and it all seemed above board. Until she got an email asking for her bank account information – supposedly so they could pay her honorarium in advance. That’s when she stopped, contacted the church where the conference was to be held and discovered it was all a scam.

Wow! I think several of us might have fallen for this one and the “ask” if you will wasn’t immediate, so you could be lulled into thinking this was the real deal. All of which flags, that sadly we need to be cautious and never take what seems like an amazing offer at face value. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.