20. Artistic Women

Dear Followers,

The weekend is over and it is time for me to get back to work and get focused! The first order of business is to answer last week's question, what do actress Jessica Alba, author Isabelle Allende, dancer Judith Jamison and Margaret Thatcher have in common? Like many Self-Empowered Women they learned (from an early age) how to believe. Learning to trust something that cannot be seen or touched (religion, astrology, numerology, Kabbalah, etc.) provides the inner ability to believe in one's own talent and destiny. Interestingly, few of the women I researched were members of a particular church or faith themselves, but most had grown up watching someone older actively believe in an invisible power.

During the past year Lifetime TV (called by detractors "the estrogen network") has given us the filmed life stories of two remarkable women - Coco Chanel and Georgia O'Keefe. If you watched these programs, I hope you kept a scorecard of which 17 traits they each exhibited. And if you read, in this month's Vogue magazine, the article about Ceiline designer Phoebe Philo, you'll have noticed traits 10, 14, and 16 among others. The point I'm trying to make is that regardless of which century, profession or nationality that these women claim as their own, the hurdles they face are shared ones.

Thanks for spreading the word and sharing your enthusiasm. Looking forward to your comments...

1. An Introduction to "The Self-Empowered Woman"

What do writer Maya Angelou, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres, singer Gloria Estefan and actress Demi Moore have in common?

If you are interested in or intrigued by the life stories of accomplished women, then you've landed on the right blog. My name is Marilyn Murray Willison, and my new book (The Self-Empowered Woman) addresses the question: What circumstances and characteristics help create a high-achieving woman?

Together we can use this space to examine the lives of accomplished women around the world, and at the same time I can share with you the lessons I've learned about publishing my own book for the first time (my four earlier books were published the conventional - old fashioned - way).

Please visit my website http://www.marilynwillison.com/ to learn more about my background, and I look forward to hearing your answers to the question that will appear at the start of each blog entry.

If you've ever found yourself fascinated by a high-achieving woman's remarkable life - think Coco Chanel, Golda Meir or even Cher - then you're really enjoy our time together.