I’m working on my Success Steps—lessons from thirty-three ultra-achieving women in What I Know Now About Success. Each woman picked a time in her life when she was struggling, or when success seemed very far away. Then we collaborated on a letter to her younger self, containing a message about success that she wishes she’d known at that moment.
Now I’m taking these lessons to heart by trying to apply them, week by week, to my life and my small (but fun and growing!) company. Where will we be at the end of thirty-three weeks? Keep an eye out here and let me know how I’m doing….
Now for the very first lesson, from the very first woman in What I Know Now About Success: Sharon Allen, the Chairman of Deloitte. What do Deloitte, with nearly $11 billion in annual revenues, and my company, with—ahem, never mind—in revenues, have in common?
Ah, that is what I’ll contemplate this week as I employ the key message she sent to her younger self. “You can expand your network and visibility within the firm no matter where you are.”
Does this mean I should work harder on publicity? Or add to my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter networks? I’ll report back on Friday. In the meantime, I’m open to pointers.
I read your most recent book about two weeks ago and was totally inspired. I think this is a great idea to follow the advice these wonderful women have given their younger selves.
I’m getting ready to launch my own company I think I too would do well to apply their advice.
Good luck, I’m right there with you!
Thanks Diane! How encouraging to hear you say this. What is your company going to do and what have you been doing thus far? In trying to think about expanding my network and visibility (as Sharon Allen advises) I’m looking at my calendar every day and thinking about how far I can push those two things in each activity. I think I’ll actually do things differently this week–but let’s see.
Wishing you the best.
Hi Ellyn. Thanks for responding. I’m launching a coaching practice and I’m really excited about it. I’ve finally decided to follow my own advice and Live My Plan A – live my dream of owning my own business. This week I plan to step outside of my comfort zone by pushing myself to network and not hang back as I’ve tended to do.
DO IT!!!
I am doing the same and one of my little Eureka’s of the week, to be expanded on in my blog post, is that I am actually going to state part of my weekly success lesson when emailing or talking to people. For example, “I am trying to expand my network and visibility…”
How bizarre that it feels uncomfortable to actually say what you are trying to do! As if we should hide our purpose. My guess is that once people hear it so plainly stated, they may be better at helping us achieve it! Well, I’ll let you know if that works for me. And I hope you let me know how you pushed yourself in networking this week. We’ll keep each other honest on these efforts.