Judging from the title itself, you're probably expecting a men-bashing article about the kind of injustice that men cause women and about how women should learn how to hold their can of pepper spray in hand (facing the right direction, of course, unless the women plan to blind themselves) the moment they catch a whiff of a MAN. Well....er, no. Not really. I am here to explain and give some good examples of why and how women can do what they want to do in business and reap full benefits of the structure that they have chosen to adopt. I want to encourage them and tell them that women can make good business owners. Women in business are better in dealing with people, i.e, business will be better simply because of the fact that women have higher levels of emotional intelligence (EI or EQ). What does emotional intelligence have to do with business? A whole lot, if you ask me. Let's, first, define emotional intelligence in the business context, shall we? EQ is defined quite loosely as 'social skills and ambition or self/personal strength'. If a person have high EQ, he or she (staying safely on the fence for now, until conclusion) is better able to deal with problems at work, better at finding solutions, is better able at controlling emotions and regaining strength after a down fall. They can communicate better with others, winning them brownie points easily, in terms of bringing in the business. It seems that a person with high EQ (man or woman) is 67% more likely to be successful in business. And considering the fact that women, generally speaking, have higher EQs, we can safely say that they are better as business people. In order to be successful in business, you need 1/3 of IQ, 1/3 of social skills and 1/3 of drive and ambition. And here's another reason why I think women are better business people. According to the Millionaire Mind, 'being honest with people' and 'getting along with people' is ranked #1 and #3 as the needed ingredients for becoming a millionaire. And isn't it a coincidence that women have both these skills as naturally as they come. Don't believe me? Think about it. Being honest with people. "That client is such a bitch. I don't want to do business with her" ? and "Sweetheart, stop messing with my kitchen" ?. Getting along with people: "Did you know that Sarah just had an abortion and then she was dumped by that godawful man who has a tattoo on his behind? Imagine that...and did you know that......blah blah blah" ?. Now, that's what's called getting along with people. Ok, there's something else that you may want to look at if you're still not convinced. How about this? SQ stands for social skills and since social skills make up for 1/3 of the ingredient of being successful in business, get this. Women score an average of 103 for SQ as compared to males who got an average of 96. So, women are better at social skills and emotional intelligence and viola! We have already won 2/3 of the battle. Conclusion Let me repair some of the damage that I may have done with this article now. Men have better IQs. This article was prompted by an email from a friend who started a cake-baking business from home. She quit her job of 8 years after she had her first child and decided to start the business from home, hoping that it could get her the kind of income she had when she was in the corporate world. Within 3 months after starting the business, she was still making loses. And despite the countless emails from me (of course, I persuaded her to stick with it), she decided to quit her business and rejoin the work force because there was stability. In her email, she also mentioned that she (and women, in general) is just not made for the business world. She said she will rather get the monthly check instead of wondering whether there's any business tomorrow, the next day, the next week, the next month! And because she felt so discouraged, I decided to write this article to prove to her that women can really pack a business punch - but only if they stick with it and persist. The reason why she gave up her business - she lacked ambition. |
