Jackie Henrion

I attribute much of my success to an unusually diverse combination of experiences. Growing up in New York City’s Greenwich Village in a resilient and creative environment, with artist parents whose lives centered on art, philosophy, and poetry, taught me early to value curiosity and independent thinking. My undergraduate education in psychology expanded that perspective through the study of systems, perception, human behavior, and self-development.

Professionally, I entered the male-dominated and highly analytical field of purchasing, where I learned discipline, negotiation, problem-solving, and the importance of making decisions based on good information. Subsequently, I developed a very different side of myself as a creative entrepreneur through songwriting, performing, and music publishing.

Yoga and Vipassana meditation later gave me practical tools for self-awareness and for responding thoughtfully rather than reactively. Over the past thirty years, I have brought all of these experiences together in the mindful management of money and investments. I believe my success has come largely from learning not to separate the analytical from the creative or the practical from the contemplative, but to draw upon all of them when making decisions and navigating change.

After taking a couple of years away from work to start a family, I found that returning to the workforce created an unexpected gap in my self-confidence. I enrolled in a career development program that taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my professional life: a résumé tells where you’ve been, but an inventory of your skills, knowledge, and experience tells you what you have to offer.

Recognizing the full range of what I brought to the table gave me the confidence to represent myself more effectively, pursue better positions, and negotiate better salaries. I’ve carried that lesson with me ever since: know your own value before asking someone else to recognize it.

My advice to young women is to build a strong foundation early. In my own career, showing up consistently and learning how to succeed within a corporate organization served me extraordinarily well. I learned to give my full attention and energy to the workday—and, when I wanted to advance, sometimes more than that. I learned how to contribute to a team, respect the chain of command, and practice what we called “completed staff work”: don’t simply bring your manager a problem; do the research, think it through, and bring forward a well-developed recommendation.

Those years also gave me something beyond professional experience. While I was building my career, I was building assets—both monetary and non-monetary: savings, investments, knowledge, relationships, credibility, and confidence.

Many talented young women today, particularly those with technical or creative skills, are understandably attracted to working independently. But entrepreneurship can actually be harder because suddenly you are responsible for every aspect of the business, not simply the work you love doing.

My advice is not to postpone creativity, but to think strategically about sequence. Build skills, experience, and financial assets while you have the energy and opportunity to do so. When your assets eventually begin producing returns of their own, you gain something enormously valuable: the freedom to explore more creative and entrepreneurial endeavors without requiring every one of them to pay the bills.

Financial independence can ultimately buy you creative independence.

One of the biggest opportunities I see in personal finance today is helping people understand that managing wealth is about much more than accumulating money. My current work involves managing the assets my husband and I have built to create a revenue stream that supports our lives and our creative interests.

That is also the approach I teach in my ICL course, Wholistic Wealth for Women, and describe in my book, Counting On Yourself: A Woman’s Way to Wholistic Wealth. It begins with understanding your net worth—knowing clearly what you own and what you owe. From there, I teach women to look at five different asset classes and understand what each can contribute to their financial security and life choices.

But perhaps the greatest opportunity lies beyond conventional financial measures. I encourage women to track their non-monetary assets as well—what I call “Mind Money.” Our knowledge, skills, relationships, health, creativity, habits, and use of time all affect our ability to create a satisfying and resilient life.

The challenge is learning to see the whole picture. The opportunity is realizing how much wealth you may already possess—and then learning how to use it intentionally.

The values most important to me are personal growth, creativity, integrity, and graciousness. I believe we should remain curious throughout our lives—continuing to learn, question ourselves, and create.

To me, integrity requires an ongoing examination of whether my internal thoughts and values align with my external behavior. It isn’t something we simply possess; it is something we continually practice.

And finally, I try to act graciously toward others. We rarely know the full circumstances another person is navigating, and I believe that treating people with respect, generosity, and kindness is both a personal value and a meaningful way to move through the world.