“Why do ambitious women have flat heads?”

I won’t a spoiler by answering that and let you enjoy a moving, inspirational and so funny talk held by Dame Stephanie Shirley for TED in march 2015. She is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded, in 1962, Freelance Programmers, a software company employing only women.

I invite you to enjoy 14 minutes of lessons in history, equality movement, breaking stereotypes and facing ones of the most dreaded personal challenges.

Generations later, issues mentioned in this talk are still relevant. We are still gasping when hearing about women leaders, yet we have women presidents – Brasil, women running global regulation institutions – IMF, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace prize – Malala, young inventors that through their genius touch will change our lives for the better up until every woman that we know that makes a positive impact on our daily existence.  There are many women changing paradigms in their fields and overall making a global impact or simply touching our very own lives in such a significant way and yet, somehow, it seems hard to believe or something in us is trying immediately to think about what shortcut they took to success. The true story revolves around, in 99% of the cases, hard work, resilience and authenticity. That ability of having a clear vision and taking small steady steps towards its accomplishment while juggling all the challenges of personal life with kindness, perseverance, with lessons that they needed to learn.

I truly do believe, as women of the 21st century, that our role is to find the balance between creating a thriving and fulfilling career while enjoying the amazing rewards of having meaningful personal relationships. I strongly hope that we can erase that concept of “sacrifice” one to have the other. And each and every one of us knows exactly where that balance line is. Competition needs to give way to collaboration. The communities of tomorrow have to be based on that! And we all have our part in creating a web of mutual understanding, support and partnership.

Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and even your favourite inspiring Ted Talk.

Love & Light

Tagged: Dame Stephanie Shirley, entrepreneur, equal pay, philantropist, TED, TED Talks