Get the Glow

GLOW (n): The tangible yet undefinable essence a woman radiates when she's passionately involved in work that expresses her most authentic self.

The Glow Project is a video of interviews with 15 highly successful business women discussing their road to success. Created by Sandra Yancey, Founder and CEO of eWomen Network, the movie talks to corner-office-with-a-view execs (like Cathie Black, President of Hearst Magazines and WBNA President Donna Orender) and entrepreneurs (like Tory Johnson, founder of Women for Hire), offering stories, observations and snippets of advice for women looking to excel in a more authentic way. It's a movie with the potential to become a movement, and the message is obviously heartfelt, even if the steps to tapping into your glow are left up to you.

"Glow" seems like such an esoteric, unattainable term, and perhaps that's something Yancey tries to dispel when she introduces Donna Orender in the first two minutes. I wanted to reach through the screen and hug straight-talking Orender when, in her opening excerpt, she says:

"I don't want to create mythology, because mythology makes us all crazy. You know, the perfect images in the magazines, that fact that women can have it all, I think that undermines our ability to be confident. So I don't want to at any point say that there were days that I didn't cry when I got home or I felt like I couldn't get there--not that there was a 'there'--or I couldn't achieve what I wanted. Have that. Still have that. But ultimately have a kind of naive conviction that if you do the right thing, the right thing will happen. And I was armed with that all the time. And I guess that always kept me focused and kept me going."

The majority of women are refreshingly straight-forward, and you never get a sense that they faced problems bigger than yours. As a matter of fact, it was surprising how much their struggles weren't particularly extraordinary--more like stories we've heard from sisters, aunts, friends or perhaps experienced ourselves (with the exception of Marilyn Tam who, as the second daughter in a Chinese family, was left in the hospital for three days after her birth because her parents didn't want her), suggesting that their large-scale success has something to do with embracing their "glow."

Although the struggles each woman faced help make their success seem more poignant, what interested me more (and what felt most valuable) was hearing them talk about common issues like fear, therapy and mommy guilt--issues most of us can nod our heads to and respond with a "preach it, sister."

So, how do you tap into glow? These women offer advice, observations and suggestions, but it seems like the process may be unique to every individual. The Glow Project merely serves as inspiration to set as many of us on the path as possible.