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After working passionately for 20 years to build my career; one day in August 2010, I gave it all up with no idea of what I was going to do next. It was a heart-wrenching decision. I think it broke my father's heart more than it did mine. My husband couldn't fathom what was going on, knowing my fierce ambition to grow professionally. I was proud to be Vice-President with Citigroup, Director with American Express, managing teams and customers across the globe. I loved the mad corporate rat race.
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But, I was in the US on my daughter's 2nd birthday. Even when I was at home, she saw me briefly in the morning and in the night when I came back home from work as she was getting ready for her bedtime. Once I managed to come home early in the evening. I was so excited about being able to spend more time with her. I told her I will take you out for a walk and she started to cry because she wanted to go out with her dadi (her grandmother) and not with me. As dadi took her out, I sat all by myself with tears tumbling out and a deep pain in my heart that I didn't have words to explain - pain of the fear of not being loved by my child, pain of the fear of seeing her love her dadi more than me, pain of the fear of being all alone, pain of the fear of not being a good mother. My love, passion and ambition for my work which was my identity so far, somewhere got covered with the shroud of fear. When my son was born 2 years 9 months later, the guilt and fear multiplied that I no longer had the strength to battle with and I walked out of my job after 4 years of my journey as a mother. Those 4 years, I was conflicted, divided and guilty. At work, I was deeply unfulfilled at not being able to create the success I was used to creating before motherhood embraced me because of the guilt about not being at home with my toddlers
and inability to put in long hours at work as working for 8 hours wasn't enough for me to sustain the growth I had been used to over the years.
It was a 4-year mid-life crisis during which I spoke to a lot more women than I had spoken to in all my life earlier, read Mckinsey's detailed research on women professionals in Europe and a lot more research. I realised every woman around the world was going through the same grind - struggling with triple responsibility of managing work, raising kids and taking care of household chores, with usually very limited support from her man.
At home, other break-downs were happening. My daughter had stopped relating to me because I was only there to put her to bed - nothing broke me more than this. My relationship with my husband was severely stressed because we had no time together. Between a global career and kids at home, I had no time for him or me. One day, I finally gathered courage to hang up my corporate boots; without knowing what the future held for me, for divorce conversations had been pretty regular. For the next six months, I dedicated myself fully to being with my children. I loved going to drop and pick them up from school. I used to wonder at the boredom writ large on the faces of other moms coming to pick up their kids because for me, it was a precious gift. Then one day, Anya, all of 4 years, told me that when she has a baby, she is going to quit her job too to be at home. That shook me because I realised what I was teaching my daughter - that inspite of all the hard work she will put in her career to be successful, one day when she has a baby, she would need to give it all up because it was not possible to raise happy, healthy kids and build a successful, meaningful, fulfilling career. By my act of giving up on my career, I had sealed her fate.
Not only that, within 6 months of being at home, life had become worse - my fights with my husband escalated because now I would blame him for my decision to quit my job, wanted his continual gratitude for the sacrifice I had made in giving up my lucrative career, my brains were getting pickled with dis-use, found myself more often than not irritated with the kids, going every day to pick them up from school became a tedium.
What saved me was that 2 years before I quit, at the height of my mid-life crisis, I began a very special journey called Mums At Work. I wanted a world where I could be fulfilled not only as a mother, but also as a professional and an individual. I knew deep down, if I could make this available to other women, I would get it for myself. As soon as I quit, I jumped into realising this dream.
Besides my commitment to make a difference, I had nothing else to start-off with. I broke multiple business models in my search to make a sustainable deep impact to the sisterhood I belonged to, to support us to transform our experience of life from resignation or cynicism about being able to have it all to experiencing power to create to Have it All -
i. Deeply fulfilling, successful career supporting us to live our purpose of life; gifting us with impact, contribution and financial freedom
ii. Loving, harmonious, positive, uplifting relationships at work and at home
iii. Happy, healthy, responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed
iv. Nourishing, nurturing ourselves to the highest level of fitness and well-being (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)
After 12 years of being on a roller-coaster ride, Mums At Work has crossed from being a toddler, to an adolescent to a young adult ready to live on her own. I am grateful to have found co-travellers who are equally committed and passionate about creating a world where women have it all. Vimla joined us as CEO and Anju as COO to scale the impact of our work and transform what it means to be a woman.
I am deeply grateful to all my teachers, guides, mentors and coaches who taught me, believed in me, held my space for me to discover my zone of genius, my happy place to come home to myself. I am blessed to continue to be supported, guided, mentored and coached by my teachers, guides, mentors and coaches. I am grateful to all my coachees over the years who have created me to be a coach through their love, trust and faith in me.
I figured a way to lead myself and my business from good to great, realise my dreams and have it all by learning from masters around the world, and teaching and coaching my coachees across the 5 business verticals through which we contribute to the world:
1. Centre for Transformational Leadership™ through which we coach CEOs, Business Owners and Senior Business Leaders to lead their businesses from good to great.
2. Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence™ through which we coach entrepreneurs to build profitable businesses that last.
3. Centre for Personal Excellence™ through which we coach High Performers to discover their blind spots, supporting them to exponentially elevate their performance and impact.
4. Mums At Work™ through which we coach women at home or on sabbatical to connect to their Power to Create™ and build a successful business that gifts them with purpose, impact and financial independence. We also coach women at work to create deeply fulfilling success at work and at home, raising happy healthy kids while building successful careers through which they contribute to the world. I am grateful to have Vimla and Anju share my purpose to support people to Have It All; creating and spreading love, happiness, prosperity, harmony, health and well-being to all of humanity. Vimla and Anju are committed to scale Mums At Work™ inside of their commitment to coach women to Have It All.
5. Centre for Coaching Excellence™ through which we run programs to support coaches to learn to powerfully coach from inside-out and build their own deeply fulfilling successful profitable coaching businesses, making a huge difference to their chosen customer communities.
If I could make it through the dark dungeon of despair to my happy, bright garden of joyously having it all, you can too.
Believe in your greatness. That's why you were born - to live in the expression of your Greatness, to give yourself the permission to let your Light shine through, to have it all. It is not the good luck of few but the destiny of each one of us.
Join our movement to support women around the world to have it all by creating it for yourself:
i. Deeply fulfilling, successful career supporting us to live our purpose of life; gifting us with impact, contribution and financial freedom
AND
ii. Loving, harmonious, positive, uplifting relationships at work and at home
AND
iii. Happy, healthy, responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed
AND
iv. Nourishing, nurturing ourselves to the highest level of fitness and well-being (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)
Together we can do it 💜
Love,
Jyoti.
CEO Coach and Founder,
Centre for Transformational Leadership™
Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence™
Centre for Personal Excellence™
Mums At Work™
Centre for Coaching Excellence™
www.jyotigulati.com
and inability to put in long hours at work as working for 8 hours wasn't enough for me to sustain the growth I had been used to over the years.
It was a 4-year mid-life crisis during which I spoke to a lot more women than I had spoken to in all my life earlier, read Mckinsey's detailed research on women professionals in Europe and a lot more research. I realised every woman around the world was going through the same grind - struggling with triple responsibility of managing work, raising kids and taking care of household chores, with usually very limited support from her man.
At home, other break-downs were happening. My daughter had stopped relating to me because I was only there to put her to bed - nothing broke me more than this. My relationship with my husband was severely stressed because we had no time together. Between a global career and kids at home, I had no time for him or me. One day, I finally gathered courage to hang up my corporate boots; without knowing what the future held for me, for divorce conversations had been pretty regular. For the next six months, I dedicated myself fully to being with my children. I loved going to drop and pick them up from school. I used to wonder at the boredom writ large on the faces of other moms coming to pick up their kids because for me, it was a precious gift. Then one day, Anya, all of 4 years, told me that when she has a baby, she is going to quit her job too to be at home. That shook me because I realised what I was teaching my daughter - that inspite of all the hard work she will put in her career to be successful, one day when she has a baby, she would need to give it all up because it was not possible to raise happy, healthy kids and build a successful, meaningful, fulfilling career. By my act of giving up on my career, I had sealed her fate.
Not only that, within 6 months of being at home, life had become worse - my fights with my husband escalated because now I would blame him for my decision to quit my job, wanted his continual gratitude for the sacrifice I had made in giving up my lucrative career, my brains were getting pickled with dis-use, found myself more often than not irritated with the kids, going every day to pick them up from school became a tedium.
What saved me was that 2 years before I quit, at the height of my mid-life crisis, I began a very special journey called Mums At Work. I wanted a world where I could be fulfilled not only as a mother, but also as a professional and an individual. I knew deep down, if I could make this available to other women, I would get it for myself. As soon as I quit, I jumped into realising this dream.
Besides my commitment to make a difference, I had nothing else to start-off with. I broke multiple business models in my search to make a sustainable deep impact to the sisterhood I belonged to, to support us to transform our experience of life from resignation or cynicism about being able to have it all to experiencing power to create to Have it All -
i. Deeply fulfilling, successful career supporting us to live our purpose of life; gifting us with impact, contribution and financial freedom
ii. Loving, harmonious, positive, uplifting relationships at work and at home
iii. Happy, healthy, responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed
iv. Nourishing, nurturing ourselves to the highest level of fitness and well-being (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)
After 12 years of being on a roller-coaster ride, Mums At Work has crossed from being a toddler, to an adolescent to a young adult ready to live on her own. I am grateful to have found co-travellers who are equally committed and passionate about creating a world where women have it all. Vimla joined us as CEO and Anju as COO to scale the impact of our work and transform what it means to be a woman.
I am deeply grateful to all my teachers, guides, mentors and coaches who taught me, believed in me, held my space for me to discover my zone of genius, my happy place to come home to myself. I am blessed to continue to be supported, guided, mentored and coached by my teachers, guides, mentors and coaches. I am grateful to all my coachees over the years who have created me to be a coach through their love, trust and faith in me.
I figured a way to lead myself and my business from good to great, realise my dreams and have it all by learning from masters around the world, and teaching and coaching my coachees across the 5 business verticals through which we contribute to the world:
1. Centre for Transformational Leadership™ through which we coach CEOs, Business Owners and Senior Business Leaders to lead their businesses from good to great.
2. Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence™ through which we coach entrepreneurs to build profitable businesses that last.
3. Centre for Personal Excellence™ through which we coach High Performers to discover their blind spots, supporting them to exponentially elevate their performance and impact.
4. Mums At Work™ through which we coach women at home or on sabbatical to connect to their Power to Create™ and build a successful business that gifts them with purpose, impact and financial independence. We also coach women at work to create deeply fulfilling success at work and at home, raising happy healthy kids while building successful careers through which they contribute to the world. I am grateful to have Vimla and Anju share my purpose to support people to Have It All; creating and spreading love, happiness, prosperity, harmony, health and well-being to all of humanity. Vimla and Anju are committed to scale Mums At Work™ inside of their commitment to coach women to Have It All.
5. Centre for Coaching Excellence™ through which we run programs to support coaches to learn to powerfully coach from inside-out and build their own deeply fulfilling successful profitable coaching businesses, making a huge difference to their chosen customer communities.
If I could make it through the dark dungeon of despair to my happy, bright garden of joyously having it all, you can too.
Believe in your greatness. That's why you were born - to live in the expression of your Greatness, to give yourself the permission to let your Light shine through, to have it all. It is not the good luck of few but the destiny of each one of us.
Join our movement to support women around the world to have it all by creating it for yourself:
i. Deeply fulfilling, successful career supporting us to live our purpose of life; gifting us with impact, contribution and financial freedom
AND
ii. Loving, harmonious, positive, uplifting relationships at work and at home
AND
iii. Happy, healthy, responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed
AND
iv. Nourishing, nurturing ourselves to the highest level of fitness and well-being (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)
Together we can do it 💜
Love,
Jyoti.
CEO Coach and Founder,
Centre for Transformational Leadership™
Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence™
Centre for Personal Excellence™
Mums At Work™
Centre for Coaching Excellence™
www.jyotigulati.com