Good gender balance in business, and the importance of this in shaping the future together, are tools that I believe have been grossly underestimated in the Norwegian women's movement. This is where the most can be done to achieve real gender equality.
And I don't believe that we should take away men's cake and give it to women, I believe that we should make more cake. Otherwise, things quickly become polarized and we risk a conflict of interest that benefits no one. The future is female, yes, but the future is also collaboration and strength in seeing each other as partners rather than rivals. Ask an astronaut who has seen the earth from space.
What I believe in is strengthening women's self-confidence and ability to invest in themselves and their own ideas. Also because it's so damn fun to build something of your own. Often teeth grinding, but everything worth having lies outside the comfort zone.
A greater proportion of female entrepreneurs leads to increased ownership, more female investors, better representation on boards, in management and in all other areas where some believe quotas are the solution.
So here they are; my 8 pieces of advice on March 8 for those who want to build something soulful. Or know someone who has a dream of doing so. Pass it on!
1. DECIDE WHY
Being an entrepreneur brings freedom, mastery, power and lots and lots of joy! But it comes at a high price, at least for most people. So it's crucial that you have a clear understanding of why you want to build something of your own, and why you've chosen the particular concept you want to develop. It can be tempting to join someone else's journey, but if you're not confident in your own motivation, you'll be much more vulnerable to doubt when things don't go to plan. And perhaps most importantly, it must be you who defines what success is. Otherwise, the eyes of others become too important and you won't get the same enjoyment from the project.
Many people think they're actually helping you by being skeptical and questioning your crazy plan to, for example, charge people to throw themselves into the harbor in mid-winter. That's okay, and I've probably been on both sides of this tentative help myself. If those who don't believe in you make you doubt yourself, that's very natural; if you use other people's skepticism to think: I'll show them, then it's a kind of help after all.
But it's tiring to feel misunderstood and undervalued, and external motivation for success doesn't bring the same joy (See pt. 1.) Therefore, find your own cheerleaders to spar with and who can give you advice. And who you can do the same for. Seek them out, ask them to join a mastermind group, and don't ask for advice from people who will never understand what it is to run your own business. Your friends are wise and caring people, but you also need friends where you can talk about business first and foremost. If you're going to be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to be so engrossed that you want to talk about building and developing far more than you might expect with people who don't do the same.
3. BURN THE BOATS
I probably should have said it before, but I'll say it now; this advice is not for everyone. There's more than one way to boil an egg, so when I tell you to sell everything you have and invest in your own idea. Then don't do it. But do it, just do it, dammit!
Throw yourself into the unknown, because you'll end up in the world's safest safety net, the welfare state.
If you want to succeed, you have to be hungry, and it takes a lot to get hungry here in the best country in the world. So make sure you have skin in the game. A lot of it. This will also make it easier to ask others to invest in you and your idea.
4. GREED IS GOOD
And I don't mean that the pendulum should swing all the way back and you should go full Gordon Gekko. I'm sure you're a conscientious and cooperative woman, with a warm heart and a burning desire to create something good for others. Great!
But you also need to do this for yourself, and for your own desire to be financially free to do whatever you want. Because if you think you don't want to be financially free, you may, like me, have been hardwired to believe that it's the same as being almost evil.
You probably want to make the world a better place with your idea. That's great! So do I! Then you need to translate your vision into numbers. Big, hard numbers. Don't bother coaxing little cutesy numbers so as not to take up too much space. Take up space, be grandiose. Find someone who can translate your future plan into market analyses, budgets and forecasts. And set your sights high - it's actually better for everyone around you. Being big doesn't make them smaller. And those lofty goals don't necessarily have to be about profit. If you're going to make cave-aged cheese in your own dairy, set yourself the goal of winning the World Cheese Championship in x number of years.
Because if you love what you do, not even the sky is the limit!
(This advice is really mostly for myself, now that we're going to develop KOK 2.0 and expand into new markets. Big markets. And one more thing: I also need the kind of person I'm describing here; someone who loves numbers, data and analysis, and who wakes up in the morning with the intense joy of working with Excel (or Google Sheets, we use Google Sheets).
Soon we will announce the position as CFO in KOK AS. DM if you know someone who fits).
5. GET THICK SKIN AND LEARN!
One thing's for sure, you'll face plenty of adversity. You'll feel sorry for yourself, curl up on the couch in the fetal position and get nauseous when you see your company's brand. But then you can choose to finish crying, short and hard, dip your face in ice-cold water, go over what you learned, and then move on. One foot in front of the other. Or just give up. Because the middle ground is a tough one, believe me, I know all about it.
Falling for the easy and seductive temptation of victimization is the absolute least constructive thing you can do. Instead, find out how you can fix the system so that others are not affected by what you experienced.
Carol Dweck's award-winning and frequently cited book Growth Mindset describes solid research on the mentality people have when they encounter resistance. Some perceive that the resistance was the fault of others and take a victim role. Others think about how they themselves were responsible for the incident and learn from it to become stronger. The book also describes how we can work on cultivating a growth mentality to grow both personally and professionally. If you want to be an entrepreneur, read this!
6. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF - SO SIMPLE, SO DEMANDING
PS: I actually have a lot more to say about the last three, but that will come later. Right now I'm on a shameless and well-deserved vacation in the Maldives, and we're going snorkeling 🤿
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