Climbing Down the Ladder

Growing up in image-conscious Miami, Laura, with her double chins, frizzy hair, and in the inability to squeeze into "regular" sized clothing, was an embarrassment to her beguiling, jet-setting mother and prominent, successful father. She climbed out of shame by focusing on brains rather than beauty, becoming a child entrepreneur, and rising all the way to the top ranks of business. Her ascent up the ladder as a mother of three forced her to make often painful choices as she navigated the myth of "having it all." Yet, she climbed those rungs with quantifiable goals measured by market-share and profitability. In stark contrast, when she chose to end her career, her descent was marked by loss and marginalization. She no longer possessed CEO status, her children fled the nest for lives of their own, and she had to cope with the decline and eventual deaths of her parents. She also had to come to terms with the telltale markers of aging, from the mundane--bunions and lubricants--to a life-altering, near-death experience, all the while searching for relevance and purpose. In the same way a generation of women lacked role models on the way up the career ladder, they lack them on the way down. Laura had to delve into her past for clues on moving forward and finding contentment and purpose without that all-encompassing level of productivity and achievement. In so doing she uncovered a richer, different kind of happy. This is her story. This is our story.