Simone Schmid

One of my mentors eventually told me that a finished PhD is better than not finishing it, because I was being a little bit too perfectionist. He also gave me a completely different perspective when he said that a PhD is just a starting point, that you gain credentials to do certain work. I thought a PhD was the end, like I'd made it, but to him it was the opposite perspective. It was just your entry ticket to do what you actually want to do. That really shifted how I saw the whole academic journey.

Let your heart lead. I think earlier on, the healthcare and health economy degree was because I thought it was right, and it was right in terms of it got me where I needed to go, but I didn't trust my full intention that I wanted to be more in the social work and public health realm. I even thought about becoming a doctor, and I was told I wasn't good enough. So really, young women, lead with your heart and don't put limits - everything is possible. It might take time, yes, it might take effort, but let your heart guide you, because when you are passionate about something, you can put up with a lot. If my heart is in it, I can sustain hard reports and the unpleasant side of work, but if my heart wasn't in it, it would take the breath out of me pretty quickly. I would also say trust your intuitions. As women, we are often taught in this patriarchal world - and that's a whole other discussion - but we have learned to just perform and be efficient like males all month long. We live on our cycles, and I have actually started to plan my work around it, because I have days where I can get so much done, and then I have days where I try to do the work that needs the least effort. There are whole organizations these days that say we do it women-based, meaning we have it not on testosterone, we accept that women go in ebbs and flows, and that's how we support each other. Stand up for yourself, it's okay, and you find your supporters, and you stick to your values.

In my work, it's mission alignment and values. I need to have my North Star, my long-term vision, because if I don't have that, I feel like I could get pretty lost. That's typically when I don't have my North Star - what am I working for and how do I get there? To me, it's also the path of how we get there. It's not just about getting to that goal, it's the mission and the values of how are we getting there. Is it human? Are we healthy in this system? Are we supporting each other? How does a team function? Can everybody be their true self? Are we adaptable and supportive? The world out there can be pretty tough, so my opinion is the world is hard enough, politics is hard enough, we don't need to make it harder for each other. So how can we live in harmony? I have tough conversations, I'm not saying I don't have them, but it's really how are we doing all this. The mission and the values keep the bigger picture in mind when things get hard, to have that North Star to work for, both personally and for the organization or people I work with. In my personal life, it is health. I had a daughter who was pretty sick when she was born. She spent 9 months in the NICU and another 2 years of pretty rough times. That's where I'm coming from in terms of what do we spend our energy and time on. My tolerance for nonsense is very low these days. Being human, being approachable, being a good friend, being a supporter, and being authentic - there's a lot of things I don't know, and I like to acknowledge that.