Brave Women Excel Other Women to Bravery – A True Story

Thursday Thoughts, Wisdom, Success Strategies for Women, Female Entrepreneurs, Women in Business

After revealing my bald head to the world in April 2019, through a front page story in our city’s newspaper, I worried my two-decade entrepreneurial image had been shattered by the decision. Knowing the reveal was to help others, not myself, I tried my best to remember the reason for the decision. What happened next changed my life at the time and did again this morning as I read another article in the same newspaper.

Shortly after the April reveal I was approached by a father of a daughter with Alopecia who invited me to meet him, his daughter and two other women with connections to the auto-immune disease at a local restaurant. When the two women joined us at the table, both had hair, so I assumed they had family members with Alopecia. Only after getting comfortable with each other did they announce they were bald but wearing wigs. In fact, one of them owned the restaurant – a sister entrepreneur. There I sat with my pink hat on without a wig on – brave they told me. Comfortable, I told them.

Both women explained that they don’t tell others about their condition and go on with their lives and work. In fact the restaurant owner had just opened a second cafe to expand her enterprise, and there I sat wondering if I could return to work successfully having revealed my truth to my community. I wasn’t throwing a pity party for myself but I hadn’t come to grips with my new self-image. The four of us agreed to meet again at two local Senator’s offices to pitch the need for insurance to cover wig expenses for people with Alopecia and cancer patients who lose their hair from chemo treatments. We left for the Senator’s office, had our meeting and parted ways that snowy afternoon feeling good about our efforts.

It’s been a year since I’ve seen these women in person but one of them appeared in today’s paper with a brilliant story on her desire to reopen a popular restaurant closed by the pandemic. Not only is she reopening this favorite tavern, she is hiring back all the same staff, upgrading it a bit, and committing to finance the deal in the middle of a pandemic. To say I was overwhelmed seeing her stand in front of her new restaurant with a smile on her face, a beautiful wig, and confidence, is an understatement. If I ever need a “Wonder Woman” role model from this point forward, it is this woman who lives her life to the fullest even with Alopecia.

Women truly need the inspiration of other women to move on or up in their lives. I’ve known this for two decades as a woman entrepreneur planning events with only females as speakers to motivate the other female business owners in the room, but I never realized how much I needed to see the bravery of this woman I met to kick me in the seat a bit and get me going again. Granted living with my baldness is only two years old, and they have lived with theirs much longer, most likely adjusting over time, but gosh darn it, I want to be that woman standing in front of her third business helping others, my community, and proving to myself hair or no hair doesn’t make the woman.

I hope this blog post reminds you that sometimes we need to witness the bravery of women to reveal a part of ourselves that needs to take more action. Don’t ever be jealous of other women’s successes, realize they can teach and motivate you to higher levels of your own success.