Sweet Success

Apologies for the heavy tone of my previous post. I was in one of those melodramatic "what am i doing with my life???" moods. I've realized that one of the most important determinants of success is persistence. And that's what I'm doing. Keep on keepin' on.

Speaking of young women succeeding in a big way -- I just found out that one of my fav profs from Stanford won the John Bates Clark Medal this year. She is Susan Athey, a 36-year old economist now teaching at Harvard. The Clark Medal is about as huge as you can get in economics, and she is the first woman to ever win it. This is the same award Steven Levitt (Freakonomics) won a few years back.

I took Susan's Imperfect Competition class at Stanford. This class is what first peaked my interest in business / entrepreneurship, and Susan was also the inspiration behind Jess and my research on Zara. In addition to her ground breaking econ research (check), Susan also has two beautiful young children (check, check) and a husband who teaches econ at Harvard too (check +).

I of course never really quite understood the magnitude of Susan's academic accomplishment until now, but what always struck me about her was her energy. She was clearly incredibly intelligent, but also fun and vibrant and loving life. I'm so happy for her. Congrats Susan!!

what is failure?

i've been thinking about failure a lot lately. it's a scary word, and the thought of it makes my stomach hurt. but, when I focus on it a bit more, really try to imagine failure as a part of my life, it all sort of just dissolves...i'm not sure that failure really exists, at least not for the likes of you and me. in any case, I certainly won't be a failure to myself.

i think failure would be living a life without happiness. so it's ultimately in my control...and i'm pretty fucking happy right now.

another uncertain summer awaits. wish me luck. i know at least it will be a summer of love. and that's all i want, for this and every summer that follows.