Empowerment

Starting a new year and facing another birthday (they just keep coming faster and faster!), Topsy Turvy has been feeling in need of some inspiration and motivation. So, we have been reading and re-reading the "Wonder Women" profiles in the latest issue of Town & Country Magazine. Diane von Furstenberg, Michelle Obama, Suze Orman, Tina Fey and Ariane De Bonvoisin, offer some straight talk about their life experiences and secrets of success.


Diane von Furstenberg's story is compelling. Supremely motivated and a workaholic, she started a fashion career in 1970, with a $30,000 investment. After achieving great success, the company grew too fast, too soon, and was on the verge of bankruptcy, when she sold the label. DVF moved to Paris, and founded a French-language publishing house, Salvy, and, along the way, a few other successful businesses. In 1997, after deciding to have another go at fashion, she started a "three-employee experiment" in her West Village carriage house. That experiment has since become an empire, and she credits her success with organization, a love of life and being willing to do it all. And, apparently, learning from her early mistakes.


"The reason for my career was to be financially independent – precisely because I married a prince. Marriage was not a goal for me at all.

On the influence of her mother, who was a Holocaust survivor: "Eighteen months before I was born, my mother was in the camps and weighed forty-nine pounds ... What she instilled in me was that freedom is the most important thing ... How can you be independent if you have to ask your husband or father to pay your bills."

Her mother also taught her that "fear is not an option ... I was afraid of the dark so she locked me in the closet. I cried for the first 10 minutes, and then I stopped crying and thought, 'Why am I afraid of the dark?'"

Photo by Douglas Friedman for Harper's Bazaar.

"You always eat humble pie at some point ... Every rejection is the fuel for what you will be – wanting to show that you're better than that ... You need to feel small in order to be big."

She says her new mission in life is the empowerment of women.

Born on New Years Eve, DVF is a Capricorn. For a really interesting profile based on her sign, take a look here. (I am also a Capricorn, and this is one of the best astrological analyses I've seen: it really nails many of my own tastes and traits. See how you compare to other notable people who share your sign.)

Ariane de Bonvoisin has made several major life changes with aplomb, and has lots of advice for others, along with a book and a website:

"If you want to make a change, ask yourself, 'What am I not being honest about?' Everyone knows the truth. We say we don't know what we want or what's right ... but really we do. We just don't want to admit it because it often involves consequences and hard work. And our lives are ruled by excuses: I'm too old, it's not my nature, it's too difficult, it's going to take time, people won't approve ... I'm not smart enough, it's risky ...

"Excuses come from what I have learned to identify as "the liar" in us ... that prefers safety to facing any inkling of fear ... "

Hmmm, some of these excuses sound very familiar to me.

You might want to pick up the magazine for yourself.
...........................................................................................................................................................................