“I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk.”
(Oprah Winfrey)
I didn’t set out to write this book. It was given to me to write. Let me explain.
In May of 2014, I sold a company that was focused on helping large, multinational corporations and started another one dedicated to helping individual people. My new company, called Happy Living, is on a mission to improve the health and wellbeing of the world, one person at a time. Within the first few months I had an idea for an interview series called Something Significant. I believe significance is the big secret to happiness and purpose, in fact I’ve written a whole philosophy on it. We add meaning to our lives through the pursuit of significance. It comes from a daily practice of prioritizing those things that are most important – to you! Significance is dedicating your time, work, and life to something of great meaning to you, and which provides value to others, too.
On July 23, 2014, my daughter Kaileen interviewed me for the first in the series to introduce me as the founder of Happy Living. Between us, we have now conducted twenty-five interviews, and recently changed the format from a written interview to a podcast[1]. It wasn’t planned but during the first two years, men, eleven men to only five women, heavily dominated our interviews. Then, in June of 2016, I came upon a long streak of particularly interesting women.
First up was Liz Nierzwicki, a single mom, entrepreneur, author, and a self-described life warrior. Then, I interviewed Sarah Kaufman. She’s an author who fears that grace has been nearly exterminated from the face of the earth. She wrote a brilliant book which is a manifesto for bringing grace back. After Sarah came Tiffany Shlain, an award winning filmmaker who is on a mission to bring about social change. She loves exploring big, challenging issues, diving into moral dilemmas around technology and humanity, and investigating the meaning and purpose of life. And then Kate Galliett, a woman whose life purpose is helping others to do great things and feel great doing them. Kate created her business because she’s “fascinated by all the things that can make us better humans”.
Inspiring women, right?
That was enough in itself – but there were more things happening in the Universe bringing my attention and interest to inspiring women and laying the groundwork for me to write this book.
About a year before I interviewed Tiffany, I saw her award-winning documentary Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology. I was so completely blown away by her movie and her message that I was inspired to write a post about it called Has Man’s Left-Brain Created a Woman’s World? A few months later, she debuted another film, 50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present, and Future of Women + Power, Again, I felt compelled to share her message, and I wrote Badass Ladies Blazing the Path to Gender Equality. You will find both of these posts at the back of the book.
Shortly after writing Badass Ladies, I received this message on Facebook from a person I did not know. It read:
“Hey Matt! So nice to meet you. Let’s talk! I’m doing a series called the Unstoppable Woman. I’m talking to people to interview them on this topic…let’s see if it may be a fit …? Do you do interviews?”
The message came from a woman named Hemalayaa Behl (she wrote the Foreword to our book). Hemalayaa empowers thousands of people internationally with her unique blend of traditional and modern lifestyle programs, workshops, and videos. She facilitates her work globally and stars in numerous DVDs. She also hosts her own TV show, ‘BollyBlast’. I was surprised that she was asking me, a man, to be a featured guest for her series called The Unstoppable Woman[2]. She wanted me to talk about overcoming challenges with inspiration, selecting the best inspirations for the life YOU want, and creating enough personal power to overcome the forces holding your life in place. Of course, I said a great big yes!
Can you see what I mean when I say this book was brought to me? It felt like the Universe was conspiring for me to write it. Perhaps it has been brought to you for a special reason too!
Before it was through, the Universe connected me with twelve inspiring women (Liz, Sarah, Tiffany, Kate, Hemalayaa… plus Karen Conover, Elise Blaha Cripe, Dr. Jocelyn Dunn, Leah Jones, Megan McDonald, Martha van Duren, and Stephanie Dunne) on very different journeys (authors, martial artist, entrepreneurs, surgeon, educators, filmmaker, and nutritionist). As divergent as their fields of work were, a pattern emerged to me; they were all courageous, dedicated, disciplined, and creative, and listening to their hearts led each to the particular work they love. While the work they do is different, they are all doing work that both feed their souls and is for the benefit of others. The women in this book inspired me because they are on inspired and significant journeys themselves. They are deeply immersed in creating something genuinely connected to who they are and bringing value to others while they do it. I am grateful to each of them for sharing the real, raw, intimate details of what drives them to do what they do. In their sharing, I hope they inspire you.
I wrote Inspiring Women because I paid attention as the Universe was sending signs that it was my book to write. I wrote this book because twelve women inspired me with their dedication, discipline, and creativity. Most importantly, they inspire me with their courage to pursue paths of their choosing. It is my sincere wish that these women will serve as inspiring role models for girls and women the world over to do the same. For it is on that path, your unique and distinctive journey, that you’ll find the way to make your significant mark on the world.
I wish you every success in life that you can imagine.
Love,
[1] Listen to the Something Significant interviews with Liz Nierzwicki, Hemalayaa Behl, and Tiffany Shlain:
[2] Watch the Unstoppable Woman Summit Interview with Matt Gersper
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