Sunday, October 03, 2010

Hi Seth

There are no less than 77 remarkable things about me, 77 reasons that you should pick me to come to New York and spend 3 days with you and 11 other entrepreneurs who are women. Business with boobs I call it. Will you let me in with only one boob?

1) I live in New Zealand. Do the math. As a percentage of the global population we are remarkable. Only 0.03% of the people in the world are women from New Zealand. If we were truffles, you'd have to pay a lot of money to eat us.

2) In my city, Christchurch, there are more than 400,000 people and 4 Starbucks stores. Coffee Culture, a local coffee store started 15 years ago, has 12 stores. This is remarkable. I created a chunk of this brand. If we were truffles, we wouldn't be very hard to find.

3) People pay me to talk. This is remarkable. For most of my life everyone around me, including my parents and now my husband, would pay money to have me shut up. If I was a truffle, you would hear me long before you smelt me.

4) When I talk with people, they are sometimes moved to change their lives in powerful ways. This is remarkable. My message of being fearless, in the face of both opportunity and certain failure resonates deep within and inspires people to be set free from the good opinion of others. My advice is like a truffle. Hard to swallow all at once but so good in tasty bite-sized morsels.

5) Within my business, our key female staff outnumber males by more than 3-1. This is remarkable. We are creating opportunities for young women with no formal qualifications to develop business and leadership skills that enable them to bust out of dead-end expectations for their performance and pay. We create an environment that enables linchpins to flourish. If our staff were truffles no male pig would stand a chance of throwing his weight around.

6) I never give up. This is remarkable. In as much as people remark on it. "Don't you ever give up? Do you ever stop? Doesn't the public humiliation of your latest failure cause you excruciating embarrassment?" No, no and no. I never give up. Except when the truffle metaphor runs out of steam.

7) Now might be my only chance. This is remarkable. In the past 12 months I have had a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and 12 months of intravenous targeted drug therapy in an attempt to rid my body of breast cancer. While I have every confidence that I will live to be 100, what if I don't? What if I don't make 40? My last years will be best spent doing what I know best:

*creating business opportunities that improve the planet
* sharing my journey in ways that inspire others to continue on their own path
*role modelling for my children that playing small does nothing for nobody

There are 70 other remarkable things about me. You'll get to see them when we meet.

Arohanui - the world needs more aroha

Sacha.x

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's hope you get picked to go to NY on a one way ticket.

Anonymous said...

Why would we hope that?

BeJolly said...

clearly (and not for the first time) I am out of touch with contemporary culture - who the heck is 'Seth'? And are all the references to truffles to do with "Eat Pray Love" or is my teeny bit of contemporary-ness (ie I went to a movie recently) completely misplaced.....

aroby arby said...

I love truffles, particularly white truffles (not to bring colour into it). Would you recommend you were tossed in shavings over fettucine, with a simple olive oil and pepper sauce, or something more elaborate? I too have no idea who Seth is but express no remorse as I've just discovered Sopranos. I will however watch (well, will try... Kazakhstan's broadband iz nyet so goot, da), if Seth has the good sense to source his truffles in Sumner.

Anonymous said...

Sacha, you haven't blogged in quite a while. We're missing your good humour.

From a fellow traveller on the her2+ road.

Cameron VSJ said...

Hi Sacha,

I have a quick question about your blog, would you mind emailing me when you get a chance?

Thanks,

Cameron