Is There a Recipe for Having it All?

“The measure of success is more valid when it originates from within you, rather than when it is determined by external factors beyond your control.”

By Karen Brookman

As a female executive I think a lot about the future, the goals I want to achieve in business, in my personal life and the contribution I want to make in the world. I have often been faced with internal conflict when feeling forced to choose one priority at the expense of another.

Earlier in my career I attended a business dinner where the guest speaker, a powerful woman who was running a successful multi-national company, addressed the women in the audience by saying, “If you think you can have it all, you can’t. If you think you can run a successful business, be involved in your community, raise children, and have a happy marriage, you can’t. My advice is, pick two.”  

These words represented her life’s lesson and they hit me hard. I found myself feeling a combination of shock, anger, and discouragement all at the same time. I didn’t want to believe her message. The words, “pick two” have stayed with me and fueled my desire to find a way to prove that women can have it all.

After many years running my own business, and now as President of Commonwealth Legal, a Division of Ricoh Canada, I have been on a journey to help build an organization where women can have their “all,” whatever their “all” is.

"Having it all doesn’t necessarily mean having a high-power career and a family—the choice is up to you. Being successful may mean that you want to pursue goals in many different arenas, but it can also mean that you consciously dedicate your life to pursuits that are more focused".

Read the full article on www.womenofinfluence.ca

Women of Influence will be hosting their Fall Season Luncheon Series beginning in Calgary on September 21st with speaker Nancy Southern, Chair, President & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO Ltd who will discuss the leadership skills that have helped her guide ATCO Ltd. for more than two decades in her presentation The Long Haul: Leading a Multi-Billion Dollar Organization in Uncertain Times.

The series will then continue on to Toronto on September 28th for the Gender Diversity Summit where for the first time both female and male diversity champions will come together to tackle hard truths and answer the question, what if the next step in women’s advancement is bringing men into the conversation?

Details on both events can be found at www.womenofinfluence.ca/events