Penelope Trunk just got fired from Yahoo Finance and her post about it reminds me of 2 important things:
1. why I read blogs
2. how to successfully walk the tricky line between being truthful, while still maintaining professional face
In laying herself bare and admitting something I’ve never seen articulated anywhere else, Penelope manages to sound wise, clever and strong. Read this:
People ask me all the time how can they get this life that I have where I do something I love, get to make my own hours, and support a family. Seems great, right? But that life also comes with this: having no idea how I’ll get paid next. And it happens all the time.
[…] I am worried, and I think about not telling people that I feel worried because everyone who is negotiating with me now knows that money is super important to me, and I’m probably not going to walk away from an offer.
But more important than preserving an edge negotiating money is somehow documenting how hard it is to be true to yourself, how hard it is to be at risk all the time. It’s a tradeoff. Sometimes my life looks glamorous. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all the same life though.
Wow. This kind of honesty is refreshing, and more thought-provoking (and therefore inspiring, in my books) than a million career advice or management books.
Penelope has been one of my favourite bloggers from way back*, so I think it’s fitting that this, my 100th post, is about her. Here’s to being inspired for a hundred more!
* late 2006/ early 2007, i.e. a long time in blog years 🙂
