10 reasons not to call yourself a Mompreneur
I happen to be an entrepreneur, woman, wife, mother of two, daughter, sister, friend, colleague, boss, professor, advisor, activist, volunteer, etc. However, I do not feel compelled to compress all of these roles and aspects of my life into one job title. Is there any woman in the Corporate World that would appreciate being called a MommyManager by her employees after giving birth? In fact, I am sure you could win a lawsuit in the U.S. on these grounds. So, why do women entrepreneurs fall for this condescending label? It beats me why so many embrace it, but here is my attempt to put a stop to this trend… (in no particular order)
1 ) A Mompreneur is a Nonpreneur!
2 ) You may as well shout to the world ”I am not serious about my business”. The message is the same.
3 ) Attention all Moms; you are still a person with your own individual identity, skills, qualifications and interests.
4 ) It is too convenient to insert an excuse for failure into your job title.
5 ) Why bring your kids into your business?
6 ) When an architech becomes a father, does he start calling his profession Daditech?
7 ) Do you really want to go there? Pubertypreneurs, newlywedpreneurs, gaypreneur, divorcepreneur, menopausalpreneur, grannypreneur, etc…
8 ) Do you think you are unique because you are a Mom and you are running a business? More than 80% of women have children, so please get over it!
9 ) Unless the target market for your product or service is strictly limited to new moms, stay at home moms and fellow “Mompreneurs”, please be advised that the rest of us don’t find it cute.
10 ) Any shortcoming in delivering on your promise, will be attributed to the prioritization of your parenting resonsibilities over your professional commitments. You cancel a meeting, your client will assume your kids must be sick or when you are unavailable on request, you must not have a babysitter.
Please don’t spoil it for the rest of us that take both parenting and running our business seriously!
Filed under Entrepreneurship, The Mommy Wars | Comment (1)Snubbed at Diversity Works
Imagine walking into a huge diversity event in Amsterdam only to be immediately dissed by the first person you encounter, accused of not being Dutch enough and of having an inferior degree. Ouch! As my colleague Lisa and I entered the event, we decided to browse the fair and in the first row we spotted a stand with at least 20 posters saying in Dutch “Women Network” and “International Contacts”. An obvious instant attraction for us. Familiar with the acronym of the organization sponsoring the stand, Lisa whispered to me as we approached that this group was for women with high degrees, HBO in the Dutch system, (not the American cable network that brought you Sex and the City and The Sopranos). The American equivalent of the HBO degree is usually a little less than, and at most equal to a 4 year bachelors degree. Commendable, but nothing to be elitist about! Having a masters degree myself, I continued my approach without trepidation, unprepared for the condescending thrashing I was about to endure.
Luckily, I was not actually interested in joining this network, but as the head of an organization of professional women, most highly educated and many international, I thought it might be interesting for our members. To my shock and horror, I asked the woman representing this organization if she could tell me something about their network, instead of responding to my question, she came back with a barrage of (dis)qualifying questions and immediately tried to push me off to another organization, of which I am already a member. She rattled off a list of reasons why I, and all of the 90 women that I represented would not fit into their group, without ever saying what they were doing. Absurd! She really seemed to have a problem with the fact that I was not Dutch, and she could not get over it. Even when I mentioned nearly half of the women in our network are Dutch, she stressed that they would have to speak Dutch perfectly, emphasizing the word perfectly!
What was this woman doing at a Diversity Fair? I have intentionally withheld the identity of the organization she represented, because I have to believe that she does not accurately reflect their views, but again, what in the world was she doing there? The Dutch Police had a big stand at the fair in an effort to attract a more diverse work force, so I should have reported this woman to the Diversity Police!
You will hear much more from me on the harmful effects of the Dutch tendencies to label and segregate groups. For now, I leave you with these questions.
Who represents you and your (business) interests?
How can you ensure that they project the image and values of you and your organization?
Corporations spend a fortune trying to indoctrinate their employees as disciples, how can small business owners excel in this challenge?
Filed under Entrepreneurship | Comment (1)Upstaged
Yesterday’s event at The Hague City Hall to celebrate the opening of an Expatriate Archive Center was well attended. Not surprisng as the Archive Center is a Shell initiative and Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell was speaking. Another big draw on the program was newly appointed Mayor of The Hague, Jozias van Aartsen, former Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs. His term as mayor is only days old, so public interest in him is high, based on the number of photagraphers present.
The audience was receptive to both of these high profile speakers, but when a nervous, slim, casually dressed seventeen year old Anika Smit took the stage, the audience and the event were entirely hers. She spoke a truth you don’t hear from politicians or CEOs.
She stood with her knee trembling, telling about the book Taxi she wrote at thirteen. Anika has moved 13 times and lived in 18 different houses around the world. She shared the heartbreak of goodbyes and the difficulty of adjusting to life in China, where she wrote the book. It begins in a taxi on the way to dancing class and ends in Inner Mongolia, where she truly came to understand the good fortune of her lot in life and the deep sense of responsibility that goes along with it. She urged us to make the distinction between real problems and uncomfortable situations. Her wisdom, poise and grace left me feeling hopeful for the future.
Filed under Inspiring | Comment (1)Occupational Hazard
This morning I caught myself actually using the word proactive with my 4 year old son. I was trying to sell him on the benefits of blowing his nose instead of passively waiting for the snot to drip down his face. Obviously I spend too much time professionally encouraging people to take initiative and take action. I couldn’t believe I had uttered the Be Proactive argument to my 4 year old and I immediately laughed out loud. My son let it slide, but I am sure it will come back to haunt me some day soon when I have to remind him not to pick his nose. I can already hear him now… Mommy, I was just being proactive!!
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