Cultural Success Lessons

In her talk about empowerment, Leila Hoteit shares lessons she learned as a professional Arab woman. The engineer and advocate explains "although western women love to give us poor, oppressed Arab women advice, they live different lives with different constraints." The speaker states females in her part of the world juggle more than Arab men and face more cultural rigidity than their western counterparts, and as such have useful lessons to share for those wanting to thrive in modern world.

The first lesson outlined in the talk about empowerment is to "convert their shit into your fuel." She believes the key to success is resilience. This involves recognizing sexism reflects the issues and complexes of others and intentionally deciding not to internalize their negativity. Instead, you can make the choice to use these messages to motivate your own success and strength. The mother also encourages people to "work your life to keep work out of your life" by applying career skills to home life, such as talent management, leveraging technology and mastering the art of delegation. Her last tip is to join forces with other professional women, rather than competing with them.