Profile: The Young, Female Entrepreneur
60s and 70s made it possible for women to really begin to believe we can have both our work and our family in one life. Then the "super-moms" of the 80s found that the struggle to balance work and family was much more than just finding daycare. Now, those of us who watched our own super-moms have begun to question whether it's necessary to allow corporate America to force us to make a choice between work and family.
I think, given the number of women taking their career home, it's clear that more and more women are refusing to make such an impossible choice. We want our professional lives and we want our family lives. We don't want to be forced to choose one at the expense of the other.
As a young woman of twenty-eight, highly educated and technologically knowledgeable, I can honestly say that I would rather pound away at my own computer, sitting at my own desk, and listening to the sounds of my own child growing up. I can honestly say that, as difficult as it can be to run my own business, I prefer this scenario to being stranded in the midst of miles of cubicles.
Which leads me to believe that I must add one more characteristic to my discussion of the young, female entrepreneur: we hold an unwavering optimism about our lives. Running a business is hard work, time-consuming, and certainly not for the faint-hearted. If I wasn't optimistic, I don't think I could make it.
Combined with a love of our work, our maverick streak, and our refusal to make a choice between work and family, our optimism is ultimately what holds us together in times of chaos.
And that, finally, is the most important characteristic of the entrepreneur, for if we weren't optimistic about our businesses, what's the point of all this craziness?
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