I have been seated at the table – rather, more accurately, been seated behind the white men seated at the table and told to hold my tongue – at the launch of some of the most radical new business models of the last century.
I have had a front row seat for every new finance and/or economic theory that came down the pike.
This is a dubious honor. I have watched these same new business models crash and burn, take jobs, destroy families, make ghost towns of cities, compromise our health and well-being, and rob us of our happiness. With the economic meltdown of 2008, I watched as my retirement fund plummeted 42% from the top of the market in 2007 to the bottom in 2009.
My life has been magical. I have over 70 years life/work experience and an excellent educational background.
Syracuse University (1965) – In my accounting courses, I learned to fill in forms and play games with numbers. In anthropology and public speaking, I learned storytelling and gained an appreciation of other cultures.
Harvard Business School – Corporate Finance Executive Education (1982) – I learned about OPM (other people’s money), the strategy that brought the global financial markets to their knees in 2008.
University of Pennsylvania – Organizational Dynamics (1999) – I learned that student’s work is only valued when it follows a structured academic path. My master’s thesis, “A New Model for the Creative Use of College Endowments to Reduce College Tuition” would have prevented today’s student loan crisis. Penn had no mechanism for “the administrators” to listen to students.
Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) (2013) – I learned the importance of social media to listening deeply and delivering my message.
At an early age, I learned to communicate by listening. At my current age, I feel driven to share the knowledge and understanding amassed during my lifetime. Now I am speaking out.
—Diane Freaney, The Cat Lady
