Women on Top

I was talking to a friend of mine over the weekend who is not particularly happy with her job. She's trying her best and loves aspects of it but other aspects just don't jive with her moral ethics and in order to do the job better or "play the game" she feels she'd have to compromise those.

There's nothing worse than compromising yourself for a job- although we all are guilty of it as we have a bigger fear of being without a job. So wouldn't it be great to create a job for yourself that reflects everything you are and believe in?

Last week I went to a lecture given by Margaret Heffernan. She has been the CEO of 5 different businesses in the USA and the UK. She's also the author of several books including Women on Top which details the amazing stories of highly successful women entrepreneurs, who when they found themselves frustrated or not being heard at their jobs, went out and created their own companies. Many of the companies fill niches in the market that could go undetected - but they've tapped into them and created very lucrative businesses out of them. Not only do they make money but they run their companies in a very different way from men and because of that their success rates are very high.

Here are some amazing facts from the book that I found really interesting ........

"40% of all privately held U.S. firms are owned or controlled by women. This represents 10.4 million firms.

Between 1997 and 2004, privately held, women-owned businesses grew at twice the rate of all other U.S. firms.

Women's companies are creating jobs at twice the rate of all firms and are now responsible for more payroll than all of the Fortune 500 companies combined.

Women's companies are growing profits faster than all firms.

Women's companies are more likely than others to stay in business, while companies owned by women of color are four times as likely as others to stay in business.

Every day in America, 420 new women owned businesses are formed".

So, I think my friend needs to get out there and start her own business! I'll be passing along this book to her when I'm finished for inspiration. But it makes me think how important it is to be passionate about what you do for work- because work is always going to be hard, tiring and challenging but if you love it- the battle is won.

For more about Margaret Heffernan and the book, go to http://www.mheffernan.com.