Monica Reese

Resilience. Being very decisive. I've always been a very decisive person. I've always been also very stubborn. People would call it stubborn. I call it resilient. Which is how I'm able to press through so many personal and professional obstacles. Because I'm very resilient. It's not that I don't feel the pain or the hurt, it's that I'm able to move through it. That would be my biggest is being stubborn enough to keep going. Because I can't stay still. All you need is one yes to change everything around, so you have to keep going.

The best career advice I've ever received, which is probably professional and personal, is ignore reality, because your reality is based on your own perception, and it could be flawed. So not just do what you loved, but challenge yourself to do more. Because the more we keep you satisfied, especially with someone like me that gets bored very easily. So ignore reality, because it changes very quickly.

Know who you are before you begin. Because they would try to change who you are to fit their picture, not your own. And it is the same thing that I taught my daughter. Know who you are before you begin anything. Before you get into any profession, know who you are. Understand your own mindset. Understand your own flaws so no one can hold them against you. And take responsibility for strengthening those flaws. Now, there may always be some weakness there. But you have to take responsibility for strengthening the areas where you are less capable. I would say to act someone that has a strength that you don't have, because that's when you begin to create your network. You don't have to have all the answers. You just need a connection to the people that do.

In the professional world there are a lot of managers. There's a lot of management but there's very poor leadership. It's a lot of do as I say, not as I do. There's a lot, you do it because I told you to. And if you have an adverse opinion to anything they're saying, you're labeled a troublemaker. And they in their own way make things difficult for you. They don't want your opinion, they want your compliance.

Work life first, the volume right now is work-life balance. Making more money is great, but not at the sacrifice of my health, not the sacrifice of my mental state, because more money does not always mean life is gonna be easier. Sometimes it means it's gonna be a bit more difficult, because that more money's gonna cost you somewhere. So the compensation has to equal work-life balance. Because I still want to be able to live. And not spend all my time in an office. Personally, it used to be being a mother and preparing my daughter to live life without me, and to stand firmly on her own, but she can do that now. So now that has changed, and now it's to re-stand on my own and make my own life better. And in that fighting old mindset, and doing things that may fear the most. Because that may be where my success is.