I am 49 today—a slightly dull number.
But it doesn’t feel dull. It feels exciting. I am so ready for more not less.
They said I was nuts to start a scalable business at midlife. But it’s not nearly as nutty as everyone said, because I know who I am now, and what I want.
There are lots of other women who are also ready for more, ready to recapture the bit of themselves that climbed mountains and put cracks in glass ceilings.
Several hundred of these women recently met me in Palm Beach for the weekend. It was our Great Get Together, where we celebrated the successes of the past year and made battle plans for even bigger victories for the coming year.
We heard from women who had scaled the heights of fashion to secure their place on the mastheads of Harper’s Bazaar and W.
There are also women with backgrounds in investment banking, to whom a bold goal is nothing more than a breakfast biscuit, one she can take down before running a daily six miles.
Many of our senior leaders are so hyphenated it practically makes your head spin. One owns a successful fitness business, has built a considerable tribe with us whilst also having 5 kids.
Another, a friend of mine for decades, is an interior designer and event planner who can oversee dozens of details without ever losing her sense of humor. She planned the very first Great Get Together for us last year and then I convinced her that she really should join us, to really get it, and she did. Hers is another tribe of happy, empowered women who wake up with a fresh sense of accomplishment each day.
There are also those who have had the best job in the world, stayed home and raised a family, they come to us knowing nothing. But a fire is lit and they discover the courage to expand their horizons. Each is finding, as I have, that the kids know that their mum is till there for them, that she’s just as amazing as she’s always been at all the things they rely on her for, but now she’s also kicking ass at her own gig, and they’re proud of her.
Other people are proud of her too. The women she’s met through the business, the women she’s brought into the business with her and the women who she happened to sit next to at one of our lunches or dinners at our GREAT GET TOGETHER.
Anyone eavesdropping would have been fascinated to hear how quickly most of our Ambassadors rolled through the six degrees of separation to figure out how they knew each other, or had a friend in common, or grew up in the same town. Connections. They always matter, in every phase of life, but they’re more meaningful at this age and I’ve found more of them than I could have ever dreamed of when I decided to put my signature on this business.
Here’s to being 49.
Happiest of Birthdays, India! May it be a year of many joyous memories!
Happy birthday India. Huge congrats to you for all your have achieved. You are a big inspiration to all of us. Best wishes
Enjoy your birthday month India. Keep your fire lit and stay passionate and curious about life and this big spinning globe we rest and toil upon. Happy Birthday! xx