Zarinah Traci Silas JD

I believe in one God, so that's always first for me, and whatever word people use for them is fine. I'm an interfaith person. And then I believe in the term community, and the term community has so many definitions - there's a mom community, there's a religious community, there's a faction community, there's a Washington, D.C. community. Community can include family and friends that are supporters of seeing you win. There's a saying that everyone wants you to be successful until you're successful, and it's important to have people who want to see you be successful. Oprah talked about it a lot, like, the reason why her and Gail are so close is because Gail never tried to take the same position she had, never tried to get in her way or jeopardize or shine brighter in her industry. So it's having a community that is full of support. With God and in a supportive community, and then the third would just be myself - the motivation to get up every day and just do the best you can that day, whether you feel like it or not. Throwing yourself onto the floor to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to do the work that you may not want to do that day but may be needed for someone else. Those three are what come to mind immediately.

I had the privilege of meeting some very amazing people in my life. I had lunch with former Secretary of State General Colin Powell while he was still in office. At the time, I was one step from becoming senior executive, so I was a GS15, which is the highest in the career scale. He said, 'No one is going to remember anything that you do during your entire time in government. All they're gonna remember is what's Google-able. And so, you need to make a stint on writing down what you've done, showcasing what you've done, and being your biggest cheerleader.' That stuck with me, because when you're in the national security space, so many things are private, and you don't share, you don't really have a public presence. Like, I don't have any social media other than LinkedIn, and I never have. So it's the idea that you have to be your biggest cheerleader, that stuck with me a lot, professionally. Every day is just very difficult, you think you're doing all these important things, and then time passes, and people don't remember it, or they don't remember you're tied to it, or any of those things, or they just disappear altogether. Another moment was when I had the privilege of taking an internship position while I was in Nice, France, and Justice Ginsburg was there, and I had breakfast with her at University of Nice campus. She talked about what it meant to be a woman in law, and that we had a responsibility. One of the biggest motivators to me was that I realized I had a responsibility, that my roles, not even just the role I had then, but the roles in my life, there are people that are looking to climb up my back and stand on my shoulders. So I have to stand as tall as I can to get as much done as I can, to make as much impact as I can, and to be the voice for the voiceless, so that there can be a whole generation of people that come behind me. I've been feeling proud that that stuck with me. Those two paired together really helped shape my professional career, especially towards the last 10 years.

There's not very many women in trade that understand law. The basis of civilization is trade, and I think we forget that. If you look at the news, people don't really understand what's happening, but the bioengineered foods, for instance, it's because we don't have foods that are homegrown here that most of us like. So then, in order to lower the amount of imports and the fees that we have from other countries when relationships or whatever may be damaged, we have to produce it here, and that means adding science to the little bit of supply that we have. Understanding a subject and applying it to real life is what is going to propel us forward. The future is the woman. There are trillions of dollars that are getting ready to transfer in wealth to women that are successors from their fathers, grandfathers, husbands, whatever. And they will be transferring that wealth and they won't know what to do with it without getting smart about how process works, how trade works, how to apply the knowledge of finance to your life, what can you share socially, who can you trust. All of those things, which is why I really teach about the post-life - postpartum, post-promotion, post-menopausal, post-whatever, post-recovery, post-reentry, like, whatever that looks like. It's the next factor, and how to prepare for that socially, emotionally, financially, and then actually. And that comes with a multitude of plans and finding out what fulfillment looks like. So women need to have the skills, and if you don't have those, acquire them to make a full and robust picture to live a more happy and free life, in whatever that post-chapter will look like. The preparedness is everything.

My baseline values are family first. That's number one for me. And then beyond that is just integrity, loyalty, and honesty. I've applied them very well, personally and professionally, to be authentic and be a person of my word. I remember Deputy Secretary in my last role would always talk about me being fearless, and I state my opinion, and it's just that, it's an opinion. I don't expect it to be adopted or supported, but it's informed, and well-rounded, and respectful. And consistently, leaders have looked to me for that trust factor, that I probably will say what everyone else in the room won't say. And so I like to lead that way, with integrity, with authenticity, with loyalty, and with honesty. And then I'm someone who has positive energy, and so in every negative situation, I can always find the beacon of light, and I try to leave with that. I like to start on a good note and end on a good note, personally and professionally. And then somewhere wedged in between those two positive pluses are the minus or minuses.