DEDICATED TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood,” said Helen Keller.

Those powerful words lead inexorably to the idea that it’s wise to listen to the wisdom learned from experience, and the lessons that only experience teaches.

With that in mind, Barrett and Greene, Inc. with the sponsorship of Envisio, The League of Women in Government and the Alliance for Innovation have conducted a series of conversations with women who have risen to reasonably high levels in state and local government with this single question:

“What advice would you like to give to your younger self?”

Their answers were thoughtful, useful and sometimes provocative. We’d like to think that featuring them in this space will provide a wealth of life-learned lessons not just to younger women, but to anyone, of any gender of any age, who wants to learn from the triumphs and tribulations that years in the public sector have taught the respondents.

The actual responses are all accompanied with short introductions to the women who provided the advice, in order to put that in context. As it turned out, these vignettes were inspirational themselves, as they showed the many paths available to lead to success.

​

This is the third installment of Advice to Your Younger Self. To read the first and second installments click here.

(A tip of the hat is due to an old friend and colleague, Ellyn Spragins, whose book “What I Know Now: Lessons to My Younger Self,” was something of an inspiration to this effort.”)