7 incredible life lessons from the top female entrepreneurs

More and more women are climbing ever-higher in business—shattering barriers, building companies, making connections, forging amazing lives and paving the way for enterprising women to follow—but there are still unique challenges and obstacles for women entrepreneurs. So we were thrilled to find this article from AlphaGamma, a business portal for millennials, highlighting seven inspiring women trailblazers in diverse industries and the wisdom they've gained through their efforts, successes, and even failures. Learn about everything from determination and confidence to how to deal with intimidation and mistakes from these incredible women. 

alphagamma.eu - What we see in successful people is who they are now: wealthy, well-known and respected role models.

Not many people pay attention to the hardships and struggles they must have faced during the journey to the top.

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur craving for success? Meet these 7 self-made female entrepreneurs and be inspired by their experience and wisdom.

OPRAH WINFREY

Founder and CEO of Oprah Winfrey Network

20th century richest African American, one of the most influential women on Earth, philanthropist, well-known TV producer, “Queen of All Media”. Before she became a media mogul, the girl in a dress made of potato sack struggled with a number of hardships starting from poverty, being raped by the members of her family and becoming a mum at age 14.

A girl who risen from the poverty is one of the best examples of self-made billionaires of our times. The Oprah Winfrey Show is highest-rated television program of its kind in history.

SARA BLAKELY

The founder and owner of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company

Sara’s idea for business was simple – forced by her company to wear pantyhose she wanted to both look good and feel comfortable. With little savings and no knowledge about this business, she wrote her own patent and launched her company at age 27. The company gained huge popularity thanks to Oprah’s recognition of Spanx products.

While being a successful entrepreneur, Sara is also a philanthropist supporting the education of women by establishing the Sara Blakely Foundation. She was also the first female billionaire to join the Giving Pledge initiative.

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Huffington Post: Giving To Women And Girls And Why It Matters

When Sara Blakely—one of the world's youngest female billionaires—signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates encouraging rich people to promise half their wealth to philanthropic causes, her comments not only focused on investing in women as the right thing to do—but as the smart thing to do. When women philanthropists invest, they're more likely to support women's and girls causes—and that lifts up entire communities.

When women invest, they invest in women—and that helps the world. Now, the study Giving to Women and Girls: Who Gives and Why gives us hard numbers to back up that wisdom. Read on for more from the Huffington Post.

huffingtonpost.com - Sara Blakely, founder and CEO of Spanx, proclaimed in her Giving Pledge letter, “I am committed to the belief that we would all be in a much better place if half the human race (women) were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses, run for office-essentially be given the chance to soar! I pledge to invest in women because I believe it offers one of the greatest returns on investment.”

With these powerful words, Blakley galvanized a top spot on the list of global leaders in philanthropy. Not only did she give us shapewear for every season, but she also declared as truth what so many women across the globe know intuitively but don’t have a megaphone to champion: When we donate to nonprofit organizations that lift up women, we can be assured that our philanthropic investments will generate dividends for entire communities.

And now, as a result of new research from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, we have empirical evidence to better understand why women invest in women. This research also offers inspiration for emerging and seasoned philanthropists alike with examples of compelling projects that are moving the meter for women and girls, both in the United States and around the world. The research, Giving to Women and Girls: Who Gives and Why, is the first empirical study to systematically analyze this trend among individual donors. The findings show that nearly 50 percent of female donors support causes for women and girls and — noteworthy — 40 percent of male donors also support these causes. Increasing age and income levels are the most likely determinants of giving to women’s and girls’ causes; other control variables do not affect giving to a similar extent.

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