This post is meant to inspire all the female readers out there 🙂 Forbes released their annual list of the 100 most powerful women around the world in 2013. These are the politicians, CEOs, activist billionaires, and celebrities who have a lot of influence in our society.
The top spot went to Angela Merkel (left image below) the Chancellor of Germany. She has made the list eight times out of the past ten years — and an impressive 7 times in first place. The Chancellor is the head of Germany’s government, similar to the Prime Minister in Canada. Merkel has made Germany quite productive and competitive with the strongest economy among all European nations, and placed it on the map as the most popular country in the world. Who cares if Germans are known to wear socks with sandals, Germany is the hip place to be now with a great work environment, fair taxes, and cool tourist attractions 🙂 The amount of power Merkel has over Europe and the rest of the western world is incredible. When she speaks, people listen. Rounding out the top 5 in the list in descending order is Dilma Rouseff the President of Brazil, Melinda Gates the Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the First Lady Michelle Obama, and politician/philanthropist Hillary Clinton.
Many new entrants in Forbes’ list are from Asia, and most of them are businesswomen. There also seems to be a boom for females in technology for example with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg at #6. Sara Blakely (right image above) is also on the list. Her original plan to become an attorney didn’t work out after twice doing poorly on the LSAT so she worked for a bit at Disney World instead and did some stand-up comedy to help pay the bills. She then decided to start a pantyhose and undergarments company called Spanx while still in her twenties (around my current age.) Now at forty two, she’s the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world 😀 It’s never too early or too late to get into the entrepreneurial spirit. Don’t give you on your dreams. Keep sleeping 😛 You don’t have to be a Disney princess for your dreams to come true. If you’re willing to work hard then there’s no limit to what you can accomplish 😉
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Random Useless Fact: The words regardless and irregardless mean the same thing.
Love this post, Liquid! These women are definitely inspiring. I remember reading about Sara Blakely’s story and being so impressed! Sometimes, when plans change, they change for the better.
The ability to find opportunities in change is a very helpful quality to have :0) Sometimes I handle change by putting it in the parking meter 😀
Germany is a great country, not surprised it made the list as the most popular company. I’ve never heard of the second lady before, but pretty impressive!
The second lady hardly ever gets talked about, but I think the wife of the VP can be pretty influential too, especially in politics if she wants to be I guess.
I read all about Sara and her story is quite amazing. Sometimes if we have a dream and we don’t believe in it we can toss it aside but you never know if your dream could be something the world wants or needs. Never give up.
She’s a really good role model. Sara teaches us that even from humble beginnings we can discover the next new thing that the world needs.