If, as you go to engage the room, anxiety and doubt rise in your chest... It’s easy to mistake your uniqueness as something to be fixed or tucked away—like a stained shirt sleeve you’re embarrassed to be wearing.

When your mind floods with doubt, and you wonder if you’re too much—or not enough—here’s the truth you’ve temporarily lost sight of:

Blatant injustice shakes our confidence and sense of well-being.

• Nor is it a lack of strength, power, or will that leads 75% of executive women to second-guess themselves (according to KPMG study) 

• And it’s no personal failing that 50% of women of color planned to leave their jobs, citing marginalization (according to Working Mother Media survey) 

My mom — a South Korean immigrant with ironclad grit who wishes nothing less than abundance and success for her children — would probably get mad at me for saying this: I delight in making less money, by design.

It’s not a failure of strategy or a lack of hard work. Choosing to leave money on the proverbial table is a deliberate, values-based choice.

Explore new 2026 sliding scale coaching rates designed to make executive coaching more accessible, inclusive, and aligned with real-life finances.

On a cold February night in 2008, I ran away from the South Slope apartment I'd been sharing with my husband like my life depended on it. In a full-blown panic, I ran down 4th Avenue shrieking, "JUST GO AWAY!" to the man I'd shared a life with for the last three years.