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Doesn’t Seem to Me These Women Earned Their Way to the Top.

Baby Boomer Going Like Sixty Posted on by

 Newsweek profiles eleven women and their journey to the top. I read their profiles looking for the career decision that started them on their way to the top.

  • Arianna Huffington – she wrote a book
  • Julie Greenwald – assistant to the promoter of Def Jam
  • Andrea Wong – from MIT to Lifetime CEO, doesn’t tell how
  • Rachael Roy – personal shopper, interned for CEO she dated
  • Kyra Sedgewick – actress
  • Lucy Jones – seismologist during Joshua Tree earthquake
  • Shirley Franklin – worked for politicians
  • Lorena Ochoa – playing golf since she was seven
  • Rachael Ray – TV host and cookbook author
  • Shonda Rhimes –  scriptwriter
  • Elaine Pagels – Harvard grad student of Greek

Except for a couple (Jones and Pagel) most of them took an path that either depended on 1. good connections or 2. an artistic/athletic capability that can’t be learned.

With so many women who worked their way to the top by getting a job and learning a skill that moved them upward in a career, these women represent just the opposite. They were, for the most part, lucky, or in the right place at the right time.

This is an interesting article which discusses a variety of topics that will have blogher.org buzzing if not thundering.

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Comments

Doesn’t Seem to Me These Women Earned Their Way to the Top. — 2 Comments

  1. Male or female, it’s all about timing. Sometimes the timing is planned and sometimes an opportunity just presents itself by happenstance. It is not luck. “Successful” people are smart enough to seize an opportunity when the timing is right. Others (“unlucky people”) may simply not be able to see an opportunity when it is right in front of them.

  2. Generally, I agree with your statement. Luck and/or timing play a part in success for men/women.

    But for the 11 that Newsweek profiled, luck played a major part in their success.
    With the exceptions noted, none of them set out to be the best in the field where they are now designated as “top.”
    Huffington lucked into an interview with Walters (Huffington said she didn’t even know who she was) BTW: HuffPo.com has yet to make a profit – and everybody writes for her FREE.
    Greenwald lucked into working for the guy who promoted Def Jam, she didn’t say I’m going to be a big record promoter and the look for the best in the biz.
    Rachael Roy – forget her. Classic sleeping way to big job.
    Racheael RAY, we all know where she would be without Oprah.
    Ochoa is lucky her parents can afford for her to play golf at age seven and on.

    Thanks for commenting, I always enjoy reading your stuff.

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