Whose Side Are You On When It Comes to Women In the Work Force?
On Monday night, close to three hundred people were in a ballroom at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas to honor my brother and two others who had made a huge impact on the promotional products industry. After dining on steak and asparagus, Fran Ford, the patriarch of eight siblings was inducted into the industry’s highly prestigious PPAI Hall of Fall. It was a big deal. Created in 1973, there have only been seventy-eight recipients who have been given this prestigious honor.
The whole night was an eye-opening experience. In video vignettes and speeches by his nominators, I learned two very important things about my brother that I never knew before. Sure I knew he was a great golfer. It was common knowledge that he played on the University of Texas’s golf team. Every one of the sixty guests that were there for Fran knew that he loved to get out on the golf course. But what really surprised me, along with a private letter from Arnold Palmer written to him, was that I did not know that my brother, Fran, had scored TEN Holes-In One over his lifetime. Anyone who plays golf knows how exceptional and rare that is for the best players of the sport.
The second aspect of my beloved brother which I was not quite aware, not only did he touch hundreds of people in his career, he went the extra mile to especially help woman. Several female members of his industry commented to me how much he had helped them. It warmed my heart to hear it. It seemed bold to step outside the norm and help women invading their work culture. Despite this bias, Fran dedicated hours of his time encouraging, mentoring and teaching women and men to be pioneers in his industry. He forged international relationships, thought outside the box, and was essentially a visionary in a business that was expected to be nimble yet lacked the flexibility.
Before last night I was unaware of the ratio of men to women in his industry. Coming from Wall Street, I was familiar with low numbers of women in high income positions, especially in management. When the video of the past recipients flashed on the screen, it did not escape my notice that there was not a large amount of diversity amongst the group. Most of the pictures flashed the faces of white men. I only counted four women. Doing the quick math in my head, this equated to about 5%.
The whole notion brought me back to my own career path of working with mostly men. It reminded me of my own vision now; to empower women both spiritually and financially. What really matters to me now is to teach women to face their fears about money, and to learn to be bold as well as self-sufficient in today’s world. Despite the odds, women need to accomplish success by themselves first, with or without a mate. It is imperative that women continue to learn and grow to build their financial knowledge base. This in turn empowers us and gives us confidence. It gives a person control over their choices. Both of these steps, overcoming fear and gathering information along with hard work and perseverance will bring any woman or man abundance.
Tune in next time when I will write about ways you can build your confidence in money matters and other parts of your life. I’ll cover some very specific and easy steps you can take to create prosperity in your life with intention. That is what all is about. The belief it can happen and the intention to make sure it does.