Very often I think about Ayla, a little girl I met about 3 years ago in the Atlas. The way the sparkle in her eyes made me realize she will never ever surrender. She made me believe that some little girls are very ambitious from a very young age on. I really felt very close to her. I have written a blog about her before. And ever since I think about her and hope she gets changes in the dusty village she lives in. Where women make the world turn, but where it is very hard for an ambitious little girl to get out and realize her dreams.
But we are all much stronger than we think we are, and we should never let anyone take that from us.
My mission is to make this world a better place for all the girls that come after me, and that means for my own daughters, but also for Ayla. That is why I gave her story and what it meant to me a special place in the book I wrote. The piece is about ambition as when I saw the ambition in her eyes I realized, at last, that it was ok for me also to be ambitious and I stopped feeling guilty about the ambition.
I am convinced that ambition requires a combination of unwavering tenacity, hard work, and dedication, and while it may seem like some women have an endless supply of these qualities, being a go-getter often comes with its very own pitfalls. I have met many of those pitfalls already, for example the tendency to always look for the next goal to conquer. This for me sometimes lead to comparisons and I tend to forget to appreciate victories along the way.
I think it important to surround ourselves with women who have our best interest at heart and those who will lift us up when we’re feeling down. Because let’s be honest we all doubt from time to time.
While it’s maybe also possible to achieve success on your own, it’s much more attainable and enjoyable with some like-minded women around you. And even is some women have let me down in the past I keep on meeting loads of like-minded great wome.
I really hope I could meet Ayla again one day and see that she is a happy and strong women.
