My strengths: Connecting dots, managing time, 90% confident, physically attractive, thoughtful, generous, spontaneous, 99% happy, creative, headstrong…being a Latina writer and helping all my Latina writers with big mouths and big ideas — Marga Gomez, you know who you are.
My weaknesses: Impatient, managing time, desperate for attention, headstrong, know-it-all, judgmental, self-conscious, power trippy, spontaneous, big mouth, physically attractive, ideas bigger than my calendar…
Being aware of these things is making me better at my job in editorial services…and my 8,000 other jobs. Yes, I wear lots of hats…lots of identities. Apparently this is how women, especially Latina writers, are built. We are multidimensional Goddesses — Lakshmi with Latina flavor.
BIG FREAKING DEAL!
So, we can do a lot of things, big woopdie doo. Are we getting any richer doing it? No, we’re fucking poor, people. Women do NOT know how to make real money! Yes, there are the Jennifer Lopez exceptions, but c’mon, she’s just 1 big booty. We need more big booties attached to big BRAINS!
“Beautiful and smart just don’t go together…,” is the usual crap we have to listen to. Or, “What if she gets her period and flies off the handle? You can’t have a woman like that running a business.”
OK, I will be the first to tell you my cycle has traditionally made me a moody bitch, but ever since I started practicing yoga and understanding life from a balanced perspective, I feel much more adaptable…flexible.
And what does business require? Adaptability. Flexibility. “Can you survive in the face of your dragon???”
OK, here’s a little history lesson about Latinas. From generation to generation we have done nothing but face dragons: abusive fathers/husbands, alcoholic fathers/husbands, bitchy sisters, judgmental mothers, sexual molestation, exploitation…and somehow, someway, when we are 80-something years old in our death beds, we go forth with grace, smiling back at life as one strange trip (to borrow from our uncle Jerry Garcia).
But now…Latinas who are coming of age in the 21st century have opportunities never afforded their grandmothers. We are really a demographic to watch, given our crazy histories, straight As and commitment to creating wealth for our families. Yes, we may become moody and emotional and overly perfectionist along the way, but we’re just built this way…
And so, we must decide how we are going to be successful. Are we going to do things we’re not good at? Things that other people want us to do? Or things that make our hearts sing?
Since I was 10 and got my hands on a black-and-white notebook with blank lines, I have been a Latina writer. It is the only thing I have stuck with through Brownies, baton twirling, saxophone playing, water polo, skydiving, trapeze flying…you get the point.
So I am starting this work blog. It is especially for us as we go along the entrepreneurial path up to start-up heaven.
Miami is an interesting, but extremely different place to start-up a tech company when Silicon Valley, Boston, Vancouver, Los Angeles, London, Seattle and New York are the hubs…among others. The infrastructure here is crumbling, the government is more concerned with building condos rather than filling them with businesses that will boost its poor economy and the marketing machine has kept its image focused on sex, drugs and celebrities.
What most people don’t know about is its geographic coordinates – we are the third corner of the Bermuda Triangle.
What does this mean? It means people are crazy enough to believe they can start-up a company here…that doesn’t sell sex or drugs…but maybe a few celebrities…OK, whatever. Sorry. I have to make money somehow! Sheesh.
We, The Femmebots, are these people. The 2000 Census predicted it: We will be pretty much ruling the US by 2050. To some, this may seem daunting. To others, this is our NEW BROWN WORLD.