Unapologetically Ambitious
Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
*Named a Best Business Book of 2020 by Fortune and Bloomberg*
Full of empowering wisdom from one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs, this inspiring leadership book offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals.
Shellye Archambeau recounts how she overcame the challenges she faced as a young black woman, wife, and mother, managing her personal and professional responsibilities while climbing the ranks at IBM and subsequently in her roles as CEO. Through the busts and booms of Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, this bold and inspiring book details the risks she took and the strategies she engaged to steer her family, her career, and her company MetricStream toward success.
Through her journey, Shellye discovered that ambition alone is not enough to achieve success. Here, she shares the practical strategies, tools, and approaches readers can employ right now, including concrete steps to most effectively: Dismantle impostor syndromeCapitalize on the power of planningTake risksDeveloping financial literacyBuild your networkEstablish your reputationTake charge of your careerIntegrate work, marriage, parenthood, and self-care Each chapter lays out key takeaways and actions to increase the odds of achieving your personal and professional goals. With relatable personal stories that ground her advice in the real world and a foreword by leading venture capitalist and New York Times bestselling author Ben Horowitz, Unapologetically Ambitious invites readers to move beyond the solely supportive roles others expect them to fill, to learn how to carefully tread the thin line between assertive and aggressive, and to give themselves permission to strive for the top. Make no apologies for the height of your ambitions. Shellye Archambeau will show you how.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Archambeau (coauthor, Marketing That Works) delivers an invigorating account of her trailblazing career as an African American woman who has held powerful roles in the tech industry. Her stories of an upbringing being moved from place to place (there was a running joke at IBM, where her father worked, that the company name stood for "I'm Being Moved") and dealing with racial tensions (she entered first grade in Los Angeles not long after the riots in 1992) show the same strength and drive that brought her to Wharton and to an internship, and then career, at IBM, followed by other positions in tech until she became CEO of Zaplet, which handles software applications for financial-service companies, while also winning a seat on the Verizon board. Unlike most women of her generation, she was able to prioritize her career above her husband's; twice her age when they met, he quickly realized that she was the family powerhouse. Though more of a memoir than a business guide, this account includes tips for aspiring leaders: to meet imposter syndrome head-on, "find your cheerleaders," identify one's priorities, consciously nurture a sense of self-assurance, and so on. Archambeau's winning voice and refusal to countenance failure make for an appealing account of one woman's path to success.
