“Sometimes it takes an overwhelming breakdown to have an undeniable breakthrough” Unknown
I am spending this week vacationing at our family cabin in Northern Minnesota on the Canadian border. It is a place that you cannot access without a boat and the loons sing me to sleep as the sun sets each evening. My great grandfather built this place and now the fifth generation is occupying this cabin in the woods that I call home. The history of this home is depicted in piles and piles of black and white pictures in drawers and boxes. There are also old files left here by my parents and grandparents and great grandparents too. As I was digging through a file last night, I found a college paper that I wrote in 1997. My parents had decided to keep this one paper, not sure why they kept this one but as I read through it, I was very happy they did.
The name of the paper is “Getting Further with Honey” An Oral History of a Successful Female Vice President. Keep in mind this paper was written 24 years ago. As I began to read what I wrote, I was sure that the paper would quickly detail all of the changes that have occurred with women Executives in the workforce compared to today. I was excited to feature those changes in this blog and reflect back on where we had been and how very far we had come. However, reading through the paper, I was quickly reminded that change is hard.
I feel like I was meant to find this paper again exactly when I did. There are so many “ah ha” moments in her 14-page oral history. So many nuggets to learn from and reflect on that are still so very relevant even 24 years later. I do not want to rush this reflection on this woman’s inspiring words. Therefore, this blog will be the start of a short series of her history (herstory) where she provides a first-hand detail of the joys and challenges of her executive career path up to 1997. This executive had recently accepted the position as the first ever female Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Hershey Entertainment and Resort Company. Her honest and vulnerable stories changed my life forever, many of them still all ring true to today. I hope her experiences and expertise that I will share over the next few weeks will pull at your heart strings and inspire you as well. 24 years has come and gone since these stories were told, what will your story be?
Below is a direct quote excerpt from the subject of the paper in her exact words:
“Right after I accepted my new job with Disney Imagineers on NASA property in Houston, I had people coming to me asking me about all these questions that I had no idea what they were talking about or how to answer their questions. That really freaked me out because I thought, oh my God, I have sold these people a bill of goods. I have sold myself so well that they think I am something I am not, they think I am so much more experienced than I am, it was awful. So I said, just use your instinct and I didn’t trust my instinct. I thought, this is what I think but I had never been in a position where people actually listened to me and were doing what I said. So I called my friend and said, ‘I am way over my head.’ He said, ‘Listen, it is called the great imposter syndrome, it is something that people at our level go through, it is a very common syndrome, you strive and strive and strive and then all of sudden you find yourself in a position you have always wanted and it scares the shit out of you, because there you are and you are an impostor, you are sitting in the seat and you are an impostor.’ So once I put a label on it and once I knew this was normal, I started to then go, okay here is the answer and then it would work and I would be like, ‘I do know what I am talking about, and I can trust my instinct and I am not incompetent.’ It was an amazing thing, my friend literally in one conversation changed so much for me. I knew that I was not alone, this it happened before and in a career cycle that it is very common. From that point on, I don’t think there is anything I can’t do. Some calls I made were totally wrong, but I learned from them, so it is an interesting thing, I know now, it’s okay to be unsure.”
24 years from now, what do you want to be remembered for? What do you hope your story will be?
The Heart of the Middle 