Jana Lagis

I don't know if it's just motivation from the way I was brought up, or it's just the competitiveness in me that I always want to continue to do more, learn more. I've always said I'm self-motivated, and yes, there are days that you procrastinate, but it's something within you to continue to drive. For me, it's like there really is no excuse. The only excuse is you and your mindset every day. We can always find a reason not to, so why not find a reason to do it? It goes with that positive mindset, taking it and figuring out how to make it better, and just wanting to do something different, make a difference.

If I could go back and do it again, I would take the emotion out. I think that's the hardest part when you're young, especially for women. Learn how to handle and feel your emotions, and then just be a sponge. Learn all that you can, have a positive attitude. If someone's negative, try to make them positive. Negativity gets you nowhere. When you have a bad day, you still gotta figure out how to take the negative and make it positive. The emotion is especially hard for women, especially in an industry that is male dominant. That's the last thing that you want to do when you really don't want to cry, or you don't want to show the emotion, but you're so frustrated. I think it's important that women have a college degree and a master's, because I think that makes a huge difference over a lot of men, because there's a lot of men in the industries that don't have any education at all. You've got to have something above that. Women still have to fight for their place at the table.