Rock Stars the Other Gender

I was walking with a friend the other day talking about our childhoods and what we wanted to be when we grew up. When I was 8, I wrote in giant block letters, taking up a whole page in my diary, I WILL BE A STAR!!!!

I had been dancing on stage since I was 3 and it was all I knew. I had no clue what people did at corporate jobs. There weren’t any women business leaders or ladies who lunch, discussing powerful ideas, in my neighborhood. Few people from the south of Chicago made it out of the region and those who did were big dreamers with a plan of action like me.

At 16, I realized that being a professional dancer might not net me enough cash, so as my fallback career, I decided to study computer engineering, get a Stanford MBA and become a CEO. Oh yeah - and single handedly break the glass ceiling for all women while doing it. Ha! I had no idea how hard it would all be.

My parents didn't give me strong sense of reality (thank God!) and instead raised me to believe I could do anything in life I wanted - even be President (they probably didn't say that exactly but alluded to it, however I can't imagine they believed it themselves, instead they thought it was the right thing to say to children.) However, I believed it and isn't that all that matters?

Who would have ever guessed that I would have the First Lady of the United States (who may be President soon) show up to launch one of my companies. My parents are still blown away by that. They keep my picture with Hillary prominently displayed in their den.

A friend of mine once said, you probably did it (started a company, raised money, had Hillary show up, etc) because you didn't know you couldn't do it. And that is true. I really thought I could do it and wouldn't fail. This was an attitude I developed as a child.

From the time I was 12 years old I knew education would be my ticket out of dodge. I didn’t end up at Stanford, or get an engineering degree, but I was the first in my family to get a college degree and even went on to get a Master’s. Education brought me out to San Francisco, practically the birth place of entrepreneurship, and full of smart savvy women role models.

The Bay Area put the cool in geekiness and gave me the opportunity to shine in a new way. I was able to fulfill my childhood dream of being a star, but more as a star role model for young women. I could have never known at 8 that my so called Stardom would come from a whole new kind of stage performance; public speaking about money empowerment and MsMoney.com

I am forever grateful for the hard work, lessons learned, and synchronicities that brought me here. I am thankful for all the publicity and to fellow techno-biz-geek Angie McKaig (whomever I have never met), that included me within the ranks of Oprah Winfrey, Carly Fiorina, Margaret Whitman, and Madeline Albright in her blog Rock Stars the Other Gender. It just shows all those little girls out there that dreams do come true.

Remember you can be anything you want when you grow up.Even if growing up means from age 30 to 40. Haven't I shown you that? Your dreams matter! Whether they are career goals, financial goals or family goals – DREAM BIG and then go after them! MsMoney.com can help you on your road to success, wherever it might lead you.