Kamala Harris

But yes, to your point, the higher you go.

It does.

It does because the more you're exposed to being, the more you're in the rooms with the people who otherwise feel untouchable, the more you understand that they are not untouchable.

And also don't discount the signals that many people are sent that you don't belong there.

Yeah.

And, you know, especially when I'm mentoring people, we'll often say to them, don't ever limit yourself based on other people's limited ability to see who you are.

That's their limitations, to see who you are in your capacity.

Don't impose those limitations on yourself.

I'll see you and add one.

And everyone else thinks that this is the image of who can do the job.

Yeah.

So the added challenge is not only the limitations one puts on themselves, but the limitations one might be met with around other people's perceptions about who can do what.

Yes.

Yes.

I mean, there are times in my career when I walked in the room and someone said, you know, something along, if they didn't know me, if they didn't know what they were walking into, you know, they were waiting for my boss, right?

You will often be, you may often be, the only one who walks into a boardroom, a courtroom, a meeting room, who looks like yourself or has had your life experiences.

But when you walk in that room, walk in that room, chin up, shoulders back, knowing there are so many people who are not in that room,

who are so proud of you walking in that room and expect that you will use the voice that you carry.

And there are tools that one has to employ when you otherwise are aware that you might be presenting the unfamiliar.

But what I also would caution is don't walk in that room with the assumption that your value will not be recognized, right?