How I Learned Creative Resilience From My Mother

I grew up in a family of mostly men. The women in my family were few and far between ranging from one female cousin who worked in New York City as a CEO's executive assistant, to another female cousin who was a traditional homemaker, my mother, and me. I was the youngest girl in the family and because I did well in school, I was told by everyone that I was destined to be a teacher or nurse – the obvious jobs for any smart girl in the 20th century.

As I look back on my career that now spans several decades it would be easy to assume that the businessmen, academics, or even my career-minded administrative cousin were my inspiration for pursuing a then non-traditional career for a woman, but they weren't. My inspiration was my mother.