Unleash the Girls

Over the years, talking to many business owners, it has become abundantly clear to me that you cannot successfully grow a business if you are not willing to grow personally. We must grow with our businesses. During those Jogbra years, I had to learn to evolve beyond my hippie-dippie and rather simplistic idea of power, considering it only a blunt tool for those interested in oppression and repression through the wielding of power over. No, I came to understand that being powerful was not bad and need not be a force for oppression. It sounds so basic now, but between the culture of the times and my up-bringing, it took me awhile to stop giving my power away, thinking of power only as an ugly, unattractive attribute. It took me too long, really, to realize that it is not having power that is the issue, but how we use our power that matters.

The question of power and the responsibility that comes with power is a timely one now. No matter what its  scale—parent or president, boardroom or bedroom— any exercise of power leads to a choice: power over or power with? Is one creating competition or collaboration?

This is relevant to consider especially now, as we move towards deeper understandings of how our universe works. On all fronts, we are less and less operating in an “either/or” paradigm. In fact, it is my observation that this polarizing era is really passed, and that of “both/ and” is settling firmly into our collective psyches.