You may have heard the quote from Desmond Tutu saying, “If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women.” I couldn’t agree more.
I believe women + even more women entrepreneurs have the power to be key players in solving some of our worlds biggest problems which is why we MUST invest in women and invest in ourselves as leaders and entrepreneurs. I believe because we are more emotional than men, we are better at recognizing problems + solving them in a creative way.
Let’s go deeper.
In a recent study reported by the PEW Center, “women were rated higher on a range of leadership qualities including honesty, intelligence, diligence, compassion and creativity. Women scored higher in 12 of 16 key skills — not just developing others, building relationships, collaborating, and practicing self development, but also taking initiative, driving for results and solving problems and analyzing issues,” says Tony Schwartz.
As entrepreneurs or even more specific as online entrepreneurs, we are “really good at the skill of association, drawing themes and finding solutions and connecting ideas across areas and problems that seem unrelated,” Ms. Stillwell says via the CS Monitor.
Women, we are the solution. YOU are the solution. You are creative, you desire connection, you are the first to prepare your family for a crisis and the one who comforts + pulls everyone together afterwards. You are able to analyze problems and find feasible solutions that may or may not have been done before.
So what is stopping us? I believe there are 3 factors stopping us from speaking up + taking action.
1. Time – Either we over schedule or waste too much of it. You may spend too much time helping others and don’t give yourself any time to dream, to heal, to plan or to breathe. But you know what? You can change all of that today, make the decision to make time for yourself, your ideas and eliminate things that aren’t necessary. Shoot, even get up earlier.
2. Money- When we don’t have enough we don’t feel secure, so that paralyzes us causing us to be consumed with worry or even worse excuses. We don’t speak up to negotiate and sometimes when we could create more wealth for ourselves we don’t attempt it because we worry about wasting more time and more money.
3. Fear- We over analyze, worry, compare ourselves and compete with other women and let all of that overwhelm us with fear. What If I’m not good enough? What if I fail? What if I don’t like it? What if they talk about me?
We give too much power to fear and let what we are afraid of stop us from learning, growing and being the leaders we are wired to be.
Women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men for two decades now according to the National Federation of Independent Business and NOW is our time to rise up, stand for what we believe in and be the change where we see a problem.
So how can we do that? How can you bring change in a way that won’t drain your finances or waste your time?
– Start with what pisses you off. Some world problems make you madder and more emotional than others. Perhaps you’ve witnessed it first hand or you saw a movie that helped educate you and now you know you must work on that area. Whether it’s violence against women, illiteracy or sex trafficking figure it out and don’t feel like you have to marry that cause for life.
– What do you love doing that could be put to use to support your cause + make impact? Perhaps you’re naturally a good speaker, writer, organizer or dancer. Or maybe you have a gazillion contacts that would collaborate with you if you ask. Sit down and look at what you love doing and fuse it with what pisses you off.
As women we are called to step up and push aside the boundaries we have put on ourselves. You are not only able to change the world…we’re waiting for you to. (click to tweet)
So tell me in the comments below. Do you feel like you are a leader who is capable of changing the world even in a small way? If not, what do you think is making you feel this way?
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