Girls Can t Do That


Girls Can't Do That

For as long as she can remember, Andra Douglas has loved football. Growing up, she played with the boys in the neighborhood. Of course, when she got to school, she was told, "Girls can't play football." But something inside her wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

Andra is currently the promotions designer for Money Magazine. But she is also the owner, general manager, and quarterback of the New York Sharks women's professional football team.

"I'd like to say that you develop a thick skin, but that's not true," says Douglas. "I still sometimes go home in tears. You get doors slammed in your face every time you turn around. But it's worth it all. Last year we played our first game. There weren't a lot of people watching, mostly friends and family. But we had 60 women on the roster, and we were all lined up on the field in our uniforms and helmets. This game didn't mean anything to the sports world. But to us, we might as well have just won the Super Bowl—and we hadn't even played the game yet.

"Every time someone told me this couldn't be done, I just thought, 'Well, you're wrong.' Women can be good at this sport and they should have the opportunity. I believe that women are the power of the world. We have to come from so much farther behind to get where we are going. To me, that means we have more tenacity than anyone else.

"You have to be tenacious to get anywhere. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. You have to keep knocking on doors. You have to show up at every event and make contacts; you have to believe that someday you're going to meet the person who's going to help you make it happen. It sounds so clich , but it's true. I just kept showing up, believing in my talents and my dreams and my goals."

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

—Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author

I Dare You...

In everything you do, every time you're ready to stop, every time you think that's all you've got, push a little further (as long as there are no health or medical consequences). Every time you do something, look back at the last time you did it and make sure you're doing it that much better, putting that much more effort into it. You want to constantly beat your own effort so that you're opening the threshold for the next time, making it easier to go through.

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.

—Mary Pickford,
actress




Diamond Power. Gems of Wisdom From America's Greatest Marketer
Diamond Power: Gems of Wisdom from Americas Greatest Marketer
ISBN: 1564146987
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 207
Authors: Barry Farber

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