Ambitious Women

I had a meeting this week with a woman who will be my mentor. She doesn’t know it yet. She thought we were having a one off meeting to talk about my career aspirations but the gag is, I already signed her up to be my professional coach. I just have to find a way to let her know. I welcome all suggestions.

While in the meeting, she asked me what I wanted to do next in my career. Then she asked me if I saw a void somewhere that I could fill. I just looked at her for a while. You know when someone asks you something you feel like you should know but you actually have no idea or you haven’t thought about it in the way it was asked and so you just stutter through a super whack answer? That was me. I did it throughout the entire meeting. I almost started to feel foolish, but I dismissed it. It was just the devil trying it. He stay trying me. Anyway, the meeting only confirmed that I need a mentor and also confirmed that she was the one.

I left wondering when we stop asking each other what we want to be when we grow up. It’s the go-to question for kids up until a certain age. Then I think we tell kids to pick a college major or a job and run with it. I wish I had continued asking myself what I wanted to be and then had the courage to pursue it.

Now, at almost 31 years old, I’m not completely sure what I want but I’m moving in the direction of what feels right. And one of the things that keeps me moving in that direction is the people I’m surrounded by right now. All of the people I spend a good amount of time with are ambitious little suckers. They all want to start something new, create, transform, reimagine, and alldat. The most dope thing is that almost all of my close friends and associates are women. They are wives and mothers. Or single mothers or single dog owners or just single. And they all want something they aren’t sure they can have but they’re trying anyway. They’ve started nonprofits, social organizations, blogs, vlogs. They’ve written books, taken speaking engagements, started businesses, run for office, gotten promotions, invested in real estate and start ups. They’re just so effing dope and I don’t know if I’m cool but I gotta be something if I’m friends with them, right?

The thing is they fail too. They try some stuff that doesn’t work the way they imagined and then they figure out how to make it work. Or they figure out it wasn’t meant to work at all. Either way, I feel blessed to have the insight. Now I know that success isn’t always a straight line. It ebbs and flows. It can look like people talking about you or it can feel like confusion or it can be a big fat struggle until it finally, finally feels like the ooey gooey good stuff they show us on TV.

So I worry less now. What’s mine is mine. God will cause the universe to respond to my effort. And if he doesn’t, I’ll just give up on life and move in with one of the ambitious women I know. No biggie.

Check out a few of my ambitious friends featured in the picture. Malaka is a fashion and lifestyle blogger (scalesofstyle.com) and Thallen has an etiquette blog (etichat.com). Dope right? I know, I know. We took over the Frist Museum last week. We were cute or whatever.