Dr. Shadé Zahrai

Okay.

So that's the first A. That's acceptance.

The second A. And there's so much more in the book.

I do want to share one other thing for people who struggle with acceptance, just because it comes up so frequently, especially for people early in their careers.

And this was me 15 years ago, working in corporate in a male dominated environment.

I started my career as a lawyer, commercial law.

I was in that industry for four years.

Then I moved into banking and finance for six years.

Oh gosh, the whole time I felt like an imposter.

I felt like I didn't belong.

I felt like a hiring mistake, but I got very good at faking it.

Why?

So, okay, now I'm going to share a little bit of my story.

So when I was very young, the age of three or four, I had a beautiful, supportive Persian family.

And we'd always get together at my grandparents' house and have kebab that my grandpa would make.

And then after dinner, so I liked performing as a kid.

After dinner, there would be this chant, which means, has to dance for us.

And it was great.

When I was a kid, I'd get up and I'd do my little thing and they'd watch and they'd cheer and it was fantastic.

But then as I got older, I started to enjoy it less and less.