“Your challenge as a #GIRLBOSS is to dive headfirst into things without being too attached to the results. When your goal is to gain experience, perspective, and knowledge, failure is no longer a possibility. Failure is your invention. I believe that there is a silver lining in everything, and once you begin to see it, you’ll need sunglasses to combat the glare. It is she who listens to the rest of the world who fails, and it is she who has enough”
― Sophia Amoruso, #GIRLBOSS
For my book club this past month, we were assigned the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. While I was trying to go into it with an open mind, at the end of the day, it really didn’t give me what I went into it expecting. While I think Sheryl’s experience and advice were very good, it all felt very passive to me and didn’t really apply to my industry. As a girl who is already in a woman-dominated field, where it is encouraged to negotiate, much of Sheryl’s advice just fell short for me. What I wanted was a book that went, “Yes, I’m a girl. Yes, I can kick ass at my job. Let me inspire you too.”
Enter #GirlBoss.
#GirlBoss is Sophia Amoruso’s telling of how she built Nasty Gal from the ground up and how she got it to be the amazing fashion company it is today.
I had fairly high expectations for this book after hearing about it from fellow bloggers and those expectations were definitely met. Sophia provides practical and achievable advice, and helps her readers see how they can become their own #GirlBoss. One of the things that I really appreciated was that Sophia didn’t skirt around her life before Nasty Gal. Pre-#girlboss, she had dropped out of high school, was jumping from job to job, and was shoplifting as a means to help make rent. However, instead of focus on the negatives, she explains how those parts of her life influenced her and helped her to make Nasty Gal a success (and encourages readers to NOT copy those negative actions).
Now, I wouldn’t discount Lean In completely, but I would suggest that #GirlBoss is a much better alternative for a girl just starting out in her career or in her 20’s or early 30’s. #GirlBoss has much more concrete advice that all girls can apply to their careers and become their own #Girlbosses.
Have you read #GirlBoss yet? What did you think?
“One of the best things about life—a reason not to go blindly after one goal and one goal only—is that sometimes it will take you to something that is way cooler than anything you would have consciously set out to do in the first place.”
― Sophia Amoruso, #GIRLBOSS
