MONEY

Working Full-time and Launching a StartUp

by ThinkFeminist on May 9, 2013

Ever since I caught the entrepreneurial bug, I have being obsessed with everything start-up. I read everything I can lay my hands on – from the Lean Start-Up to stalking Gotham Gal, AVCs blog, Paul Graham Essays and of course my beloved Women2.0. I also end up speaking to tons of web designers, developers and potential advisors and mentors for my start-up. These coupled with a full-time job, training and running half-marathons, raising a 4 year-old and living a healthy lifestyle (everyone knows it’s a lot of hard work to green juice, cook your own food every single day, no?). I digress, although I have to say that staying in top shape and living intentionally benefits your start-up in every way. You tend to have better mental clarity, rigor and ability to focus on difficult tasks.

Now moving on. I have since been thinking about what it truly means to be an employee and at the same time a potential CEO/Co-Founder. This big leap is not for the faint at heart and I recognize that. Not to toot my own horn, but I am very comfortable with stress and I thrive on working under pressure. It’s the only way I can get anything done 110% but there is a part of me that wonders what life is like to just focus on my start-up without the 50+ hours full-time job. I know what many of you are thinking – why not quit your job and focus on it? Well, the short story is that I can’t. I need the money, and until I get around to seeking funding, I plan on keeping my job.

There are so many companies that have started as a side project and became real companies eventually. Craigslist was Craig Newmark’s side project started in 1995 and only turned into a real company in 1999. So many people think they cannot start working on a start-up unless they are out of a job. By focusing 100% on a startup, you most likely get things going faster, and you hustle like crazy, I get it. However, one of the advantages of working on my startup on the side is that it gives me the luxury to test my hypotheses even more so with co-workers, friends, and families. I also have the money to travel to conferences and events without worrying about diminishing funds. These small but crucial activities, add value in a way that going full throttle, burning through cash and possibly crashing afterwards does not. The reality is that 9 out of 10 startups fail. And as an engineer, I thrive on data. I believe so much in doing my homework, getting voice of customers, acquiring customers, and launching a minimum viable product before going exiting corporate life.

This said, my entire basis for doing this is around financial security. Trust me, I have thought about quitting my job, moving myself and my 4 year-old to New York (luckily, my Mom is coming to stay with me full-time to help out), however, I know that I have to be sensible. I have to approach this like a CEO, do you stop making Product A because you are getting ready to launch an improved Product B? No. You ensure that Product B is going into the right market and has gained traction before pulling the rugs from underneath Product A. And I know that there are recent college graduates my age who are leaving it all behind and following their dreams. At the young age of 26, I have learned very quickly that you can only go as far as your bank account and networks will get you, and what I want to focus on while working my full-time job is to grow my network, launch my MVP and watch the gods of startups unfold naturally.

I plan on documenting my journey on my blog as well as on Women2.0. Wish me luck

Anyone working full-time and on a side project to launch a startup? I will love to hear from you! Please feel free to email me at blessing@thinkfeminist.com if you have any resources or networks that can be helpful to me.

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How Social Entrepreneurs Mix Business with Social Responsibility to Successfully Solve Real Problems

by ThinkFeminist on April 16, 2013

“Each of us feels some aspect of the world’s suffering acutely. And we must pay attention. We must act. This little corner of the world is ours to transform. This little corner of the world is ours to save.” – Stephen Cope, The Great Work of Your Life.

In my freshman year of college, I founded a non-profit to revolutionize science and technology participation among youths in Africa. I was young and I wanted to change the world. My parents begged of me to face my education and I slowly parked that dream for sometime in my future. Since then I have worked for various Fortune 100 companies, and currently climbing the corporate ladder but when I look back at my younger self 7 years ago, I know that I truly come alive when I know that I am working for a greater purpose. I know that my calling is to be a social entrepreneur and so I have decided to do something about it. I have this crazy idea in my head that I can change the world of women and work.

My focus in the last five years as a blogger has being solely on enabling and empowering the next generation of women to become active economic agents. In the next decade, about one billion women are poised to enter the global economy. 97% of these women are in developing and emerging economies. The impact of women in the global economy – as producers, entrepreneurs, employees and consumers – will be at least as significant as that of China’s and India’s respective one-billion-plus populations. Tapping into women’s economic potential would be equivalent to having an additional one billion individuals contributing to the global economy and stimulating growth. These phenomenon was detailed in studies conducted by Ernst & Young, Booz & Co, and McKinsey & Company, and it is appropriately named the “Third Billion Effect”. Research shows that economically empowering women is not only good for the women; it is also good for the societies they live in, as well as the next generation. It’s a multiplier effect for their family and society. Women are more likely to save money for the children’s college, a strategy that also increases literacy and strengthens their local economies.

Becoming a social entrepreneur is different from your typical entrepreneur. For us, purpose is greater than profit and we are in it to discover, disrupt, and drive innovation. The positive impact is how we measure success and profit generally flows in because we get people to join us on this crazy journey of changing the world. In today’s world, generosity is the next frontier – people will pay more to make real impact. As a result, social entrepreneurs are more interested in understanding the social, economic, political, and cultural context of the problems they are trying to solve than traditional entrepreneurs are. We care about making money, but we focus equally on solving the problem. And that is what makes us very successful, because we are analytical enough to create a business model based on research, evidence and data yet we are idealist enough to think we can change the world. If you lack these characteristics, you are not changing the world.

And then there is perspective. Some of us have experienced these problems first hand, hence the passion and resilience is there to give ourselves to the service of others even when it hurts. At the age of seventeen, I left the shores of West Africa to study in the United States. I did that because I wanted to escape patriarchy, the agony of being a female, and the painful evenings spent in the kitchen. I knew that wasn’t the life I wanted and I worked hard to get myself out of the ‘dungeon’ like me and my siblings now joke about. In so many ways, my journey to become a social entrepreneur comes from my leadership abilities and confidence combined with my background as a woman who grew up in a developing nation. This culminated into a lofty dream of empowering women to boldly follow their dreams, achieve financial freedom and consequently strengthen their local economies.

Want to be a social entrepreneur? Find something you believe in. Choose your little corner of the world that is worth saving.

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What Carrying the XX Chromosomes does to your Bank Account

by ThinkFeminist on April 10, 2013

I personally have never had an experience of unequal pay. As a female in a male dominated field, I knew exactly the salary range my guy-friends were getting and I quickly tossed aside salary ranges that were not in that bracket. I once got an offer that was 25% less than the regular salary for a Chemical Engineer in the oil sector, a huge red flag. I emailed the company that I wouldn’t be accepting the offer and I was sure to mention other Fortune 100 Companies that are willing to pay me over 40% of what their offer was. They countered back, but I rejected them outrightly. I have no patience for games.

So in honor or Equal Pay Day. I want to acknowledge women everywhere who have to go through the pay gap. Although, some say it does not exist anymore, I say bullshit! It does not exist in some industries, yes, but in service jobs where women are the pre-dominant employees, unequal pay is rampant and needs to be addressed. The pay gap hurts everyone and it makes economic sense to address this parasitic problem.

BrainTrack.com put a nice info graphic together that breaks everything down. It says that women pay almost $1million dollars in penalty for carrying the XX Chromosome.

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Blueprint and Strategies to Landing a New Job

by ThinkFeminist on February 7, 2013

I have a wonderful career and although I love what I do, I know what I want to do next, and I am working vicariously everyday to build myself up to that level of knowledge and experience needed for where I want to go in the next five to ten years. If you see someone that has a career that you want, they definitely spent the most of their college years and career lives defining themselves and differentiating themselves from others. As a college student I knew I was an ENTJ and I was much better at leading people, so I worked hard not to get straight A’s, because well, that’s boring, but spent some portion of my time garnering leadership and social skills. So, it was no surprise that my first job out of college involved managing a multi-million dollar budget, multiple businesses and over thirty people. It started with my first start-up my sophomore year of college, a my nonprofit. I also served on the national board of several student organizations and interned every summer with a fortune 100 company. I picked up blogging, social media, networking by attending various leadership conferences across the country. I took special classes online to help hone various skills I was lacking.

The bottom line is, to have the career you want, you must clearly define who you are. You must find out what your strengths and weaknesses are and focus on your strengths. Research says to forget about the weaknesses, it’s like mammal trying to fly, it will lead no where. So you may ask, how do I define and differentiate myself from everybody else out there?

1. Plan It, From the Heart!

This is always my first punch line because most people venture out without planning and later appear stupid and ludicrous. You don’t want to be that person. Document in a journal or on your blog what you want to accomplish in the year 2013 and beyond. Some people put this in a bucket-list format. I just write it down somewhere that is easily accessible to me. What brings you alive? What makes you tick? When do you want to accomplish these things? Put a date on it. Don’t try to be smart about it, it doesn’t have to sound like a business plan. Make it fun and playful. There is no value in making it any harder for you to read later. It must smell, look and sound like you. If you are out of work, tell your out-of-work story.

2. Find a New Way to Meet People/Employers

I love to meet people, it’s in my DNA. Meeting people brings me alive and it allows me to connect, engage and empower them and myself in return. It gives me joy. And this is so important because companies don’t usually care about your GPA, how smart you are, how smart you talk, or how friendly you look. What they care about is your social and communication skills. They care about emotional intelligence, because it matters these days more than your IQ. Emotional intelligence tells people how well we handle ourselves and each other. Daniel Goleman, the man who wrote the groundbreaking book ‘Emotional Intelligence‘ redefined what it means to be smart. He talks about the roots of empathy, managing with heart, the cost of emotional illiteracy, emotional hijacking and how to school our emotions. If you haven’t read this book, do so immediately, it will save your life especially if your career involves dealing with people.

3. Show Your Goods, Develop a Social Mindset

What do you have to offer? What are you good at? How do people know what you are good at? The beauty of Gen Y is that we are extroverts, social, writers, philanthropist and everything combined. We are versatile and generous and sometimes that can be confusing for people to know what your area of specialty really is. So, pick two or three things you are good at and think of ways to showcase them. There are various social media outlet these days ranging from twitter, facebook, foursquare, tumblr, wordpress, to blogger and of course many more. Start a blog, tweet every other hour, say something that tells people what you are about. Be consistent. There are so many fashion bloggers that have started their own clothing line just by blogging about their outfit, what they wear and who they hang out with. That is just an example, if you are more of a science, law kind of person, well that is all rolled into social media these days, so develop a social mindset ASAP.

4. It’s Who Knows You – Network all the way baby!

Remember we talked about meeting people earlier? Well getting a job is about who you know, always. You think there aren’t well qualified people than you in every facet of this planet? Don’t think you are some hot cake sweetheart, there are millions of people out there who hold multiple degrees and are still working minimum wage. The key to landing a job is who you know, period! I never interviewed for any of my internships in college. I got multiple offers based on connections I make every day with Alumni’s, employers, working class members of student organization’s I work with. I flew to different parts of the country to check out various companies, and only to turn down their offers, that was how much multiple offers I got. The point I am trying to make it, go out and network. Don’t sit behind your computer and network all day via social media. Social Mindset is a combination of social media, and social activities. Both must go hand in hand.

5. Give Back, Find Your Purpose, Discover U

This sounds funny right? But do it. Our generation is one generation that is breaking records on social good. We are not afraid to give, we are not afraid to see and trust the ingenuity and talent of people. We invest our time to volunteer, to raise funds (see Kickstarter and Indiegogo) and it’s in these kinds of way that we make lifelong friends, that we find our purpose, that we truly discover what we are made of. This ties back to the intro of this article, defining who you are.

When you try these five steps effectively, you would be long gone in your journey in your career, new venture and remember to help others along the way too. It’s the only way to leave your mark.

What other strategies have helped you in landing a career/job you’ve always wanted?

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One Resolution to Be Happy

by ThinkFeminist on December 28, 2012

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” ~Jack Dixon

What I had planned out to do heading into the new year was a ‘vision board’. I was going to head to home depot and get myself a matte whiteboard, some magazines from a bookstore, glue, pictures where I look happy and chart out plans for the year. Until Christmas came along when my day started so lovely and ended with me sobbing on a friend’s couch. I am normally not a resolution freak, I focus mostly on creating solutions because resolutions are calendar-driven, addresses symptoms such as weight-loss, financial stability, etc. , everything else that when achieved may not necessarily lead to happiness I realized that I needed a few resolutions that offer breakthrough in my innermost self or it will never matter what I put on my vision board.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The new year always seems like a new beginning to me, a fresh start, a great time to change some habits that are slowly eating away the wonderful person we were bound to be. So, I will share bits and pieces of my resolutions with you, because I want some accountability, I want to come back here every now and then to reflect on my promises to myself. There are so many people that give up on resolutions, that psychologists are starting to refer to it as a pointless exercise. I don’t want this resolution to be that. My resolution is about being happy, it’s the foundation that leads me on the amazing journey of achieving my goals.

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.” ~Denis Waitley

First, I realize that 2012 was the most unhappy, unfufilling, unproductive I have ever been my entire adult life. And I don’t know about you, but what is it that makes people unhappy? Why do I start my day feeling excited, positive and energized but end it flat and uninspired or even sometimes furious and angry. In engineering, I took an extensive course called Root Cause Failure Analysis. It’s an investigative technique that allows you to dig deep until you find factors, triggers and conditions that initiate failures. I decided to bring that same exercise into my own personal life and after spending the entire night on my notepad, I came up with this top reasons for my unhappiness. Yours may be different and it may be very well similar to mine, but the crux of this technique is to face squarely our subconscious. I realized that my unhappiness stems from these things and I read about people that have gone through similar feelings, listed here as well.

Top Reasons for My Unhappiness

I can’t stop dwelling on the past, I obsess about everything that went wrong in my childhood, my marriage, my life. “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” ~Buddha

I feel lonely and dissatisfied with how I’m spending my time and the impact I’m making on the world. “I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.” ~ Hafiz of Shiraz

I feel like I am not living up to my truest potential as I start losing hope. “Don’t let today’s disappointments cast a shadow on tomorrow’s dreams.” ~ Unknown

I expect and find the worst in people these days. It’s my way of shielding myself from getting hurt. I tell myself, paddle your own canoe Blessing! “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.” -~ Frank Cane

I feel like I am not enough and so many people expect so much from me and I never seem to be able to offer ALL that they want. “Always concentrate on how far you’ve come, rather than how far you have left to go.” ~ Unknown

I turn myself into a victim or a martyr, blaming everyone else. “Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.” ~ Dhammapada

I spiral into negative thinking, at one point, I thought I was dying soon, so I wrote a will. ”Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” ~ Norman Cousin

I assume that life should be perfect and all these things shouldn’t happen to me. “Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solitude is the enemy of well-being.” John Updike

I stopped praying for a long time and now it’s hard to get back into it. “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

After this gruesome exercise which I am still uncomfortable about, I decided to make these happiness resolutions.

Let go of the past: It’s easy to forget my past when things are peachy and I am sipping wine, but as soon as I put my daughter to bed, I revert back to feeling dejected. What I truly will do is focus on the future, which is so promising and not worth the damages of this dangerous state. ”Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” ~ Thich Naht Hahn

Family Walks: The only way to combat loneliness is to act. I already do so much, so why do I feel lonely? I think it’s not the loneliness, it’s what I do when I am alone. I think too deep, I spiral into negative talks. So, I have decided to start doing more to fill voids in my life. Evening walks are the perfect way to end a perfect day. I will get to discover myself more and bond even better with my daughter “If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.” -Maxwell Maltz & “Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~Rumi

Giving: I plan on focusing more on helping my siblings this year. I also want to volunteer more in my community. I have brilliant ideas that could change the community I live in right now, but I am buried deeply in my own problems instead of seeing how useful I could be for other people. “When deeds and words are in accord, the whole world is transformed.” ~ Chuang Tzu

Travel & Adventure: I didn’t do much of that this year. In 2013, I want to travel to some parts of Asia and Africa. I want to immerse myself in cultures that promote healthy lifestyles and spirituality. I want to pursue happiness in a whole new way. It’s going to be hard finding the time in my schedule and money to finance it all, but nothing is truly impossible.

Sports: I started running this year, it felt more like running away from my troubles and fears. In 2013, I want to run and truly enjoy the beautiful community I live in. I want to run in all kinds of weather – snow, rain, sunshine – to fully appreciate nature and all that God has to offer. I have registered for a few half marathons as well. I am so excited. Yoga is also a good practice I picked up, and I love that it strengthens my core, balances my mind, and focuses my attention, its the perfect recipe for a wholesome life.

Doing: I looked through my notepad, and I have down brilliant ideas that could change the way we interact in the community, kid’s lives, empower women, and transform the world we live in. I really need to act on these ideas. “Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake.” ~ Francis Bacon Sr.

Cooking: I noticed that I am at my happiest when I cook. So, I want to spend more time cooking for my loved ones. My daughter especially who continues to inspire me and help me in the kitchen. I almost want to say that I would not be eating out, but I know I will every now and then when I run out of time.

In the end, I am not setting any lofty goals, but simple actions that will free up my mind and empower me to become a better person “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” ~William S. Burroughs

Life is challenging, but I am not giving up. I know that 2013 holds so much promise for me and my daughter, siblings, family and loved ones. And I want to be part of that positive experience and not a stumbling block. Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.

I hope that you learned a few things from my resolutions. And I truly hope for everyone that you will happier in 2013.

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Finally, a StartUp Idea and the Search for an Angel Investor

by ThinkFeminist on September 20, 2012

Seriously, if you know me really well for the past couple of years, you can bet that you’ve heard me rant about starting my own company or doing something with myself other than the 8 to 5 grind.

Honestly, for me, it’s not that I hate working, matter of fact, I love my job, but I am not wired to work for anyone. My body and mind are conditioned in such a way that if an idea is not originally mine or the vision is not truly coming from a place where I can be truly inspired, I tend to lose motivation along the way. Of course, I can’t just drop the ball with my current work, because there are checks and balances that keep folks like me with an entrepreneurial mind accountable. I strive everyday to do my best work, but I know deep down who I really am, and I know that when I get home, I feel even more excited to get behind my iMac to brainstorm and research opportunities for a startup. I have threaded lightly in the area of Cleantech, Mobile Applications, etc.

Recently, I started thinking about an idea around women at home and in the workplace and how to keep these women empowered, enriched and help them thrive. I have always being a ‘woman empowerment’ person. I was part of the Society of Women Engineers in my college days where I mentored young college students to stay the course in engineering. I also started three blogs that cater to women (i.e this blog, www.workingmomjournal.com and the defunct www.safehomehappymom.com) as well as started a ‘Women’s Network’ at my current job, hence you can say that the business of advancing women is in my DNA. I will not go into details with my idea yet as it is currently in the incubating stage, but what I will tell you is that this idea is deal breaker for women. It keeps women at the fore-front of innovation, ideas and start-ups, global change & impact. Indeed, this idea is a vehicle that combats brain-drain, increases networking and collaboration which women do best and gives women the moral boost they need to thrive at home and in the workplace.

I missed the deadline for PitchNYC hosted by Women2.0, but I am hoping that I can get in the radar of some Angel Investors here in a couple of weeks or months depending on how hard it is. In the meantime, I am refining my idea, putting them on paper and hoping to create some kind of framework as well as a presentation. I learned about about Astia and hoping to check those out.

Do you have a StartUp? How did you find Angel Investors?

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The Call for Women to Help Women

March 8, 2012

Today marks the 101st celebration of Women’s day globally. Last year, I reminded us to examine how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. I paid homage to women who fought for their rights over 100 years ago to make our lives much more easier and fulfilling, and also called [...]

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