Building Everything
Do women build differently?
You may see me as a typical silicon valley engineer turned business person. And I am that. But peel away the layers and you will find that at my core, I am a builder.
Throughout my life, I have built products, teams, companies and a career. I have also built a family, a home, deep friendships and multiple significant relationships. And…I have built a house too!
When I joined Stanford HAI, I realized that more than AI research or policy, I was excited by the job because I was curious about building an institute. How do you go about building an institute? What is the core of an institute? How does it live within a larger organization; in this case, Stanford University ? How do you prepare the ground for success? What does success mean for an institute anyway?
Similarly and equally, I am curious about bread (and this was before the pandemic made breadmakers of all of us!) and especially the persian breads of my childhood: Sangak, Barbari, Taftoon. I am dreaming of building a persian bread bakery. I also want to build a more equitable world across geographic boundries and have yet to find the vehicle that will get me to building this one out. I do and dream of all of these building projects, as I continue to build companies, products and teams via my work as a teammate or as a board member of the companies that I engage with.
Much has been written about the neglected contributions of women and their work, and that is all fair and true. Unfairness aside, as I look around me, all I see are women builders. I see women building companies and products and teams, yes, but I also see women building communities, art studios, cleaning businesses, political campaigns, hair salons, fundraising newsletters and more. True - it is hard to see ourselves as women builders, as we busily jump from task to task and juggle multiple identities. But make no mistake - women are all builders.
Take a good look at the women in your life:
What have they built?
What are they building now?
What do they hope to build in the future?
How do they build?
How can we help everyone build better, build easier, build with more conviction, build stronger?
And to you dear reader …. Do you see yourself as a builder? And if you thought of yourself as a builder, would you see the world differently? Would the world see you differently? Will the idea of building help you clarify what matters to you and why?
Let us all become conscious and intentional builders. Let us raise a generation of builders. Builders that are not afraid to ask for what they are worth. Builders that proudly claim all that they have built.
Building not waiting….
Nazila