Tory Burch wants you to Embrace Your Ambition

For men, ambition is seen as a complement. For women to be ambitious, it is seen as a negative. Tory Burch wants to change this.  The Tory Burch Foundation, which aims to empower women entrepreneurs, is working to destigmatize female ambition, as it recently hosted its now annual Embrace Ambition Summit at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City to support women’s ambition, followed by a tour in major cities across the U.S.

Burch of course is famous first as the founder and now Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of global lifestyle brand Tory Burch, LLC. She launched the company as a small boutique in New York city and has grown it to more than 250 stores worldwide.

Burch has always envisioned social responsibility to be part of her brand and business and started the Tory Burch Foundation to advance women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship, as studies continue to find that while women-owned businesses are making gains, they still lag behind men in key areas like funding.

One of the reasons Burch and the Foundation launched the #EmbraceAmbition initiative was because that while the attribute is so critical to success it is often perceived as negative in women. So much so that it can sometimes hold women back or prevent them from achieving their business goals.

This series of events aims to reframe ambition as positive and is doing so by showcasing many of the women pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Foundation President Laurie Fabiano has stated that more than 2000 women had submitted essays as part of the effort. She read every one of them and said she was overwhelmed by their stories.

Fabiano said that beyond this event, many other women are active through the Foundation and its Capital Program in partnership with Bank of America. Together, they have distributed more than $46 million in loans to more than 2,500 women entrepreneurs in the United States. Overall, the Foundation has provided over half a million dollars in grants to female entrepreneurs as part of its flagship Fellows Program.

Of course, all this momentum has to begin somewhere. And for Burch, that origin was her own entrepreneur-mother Reva. According to Burch, her mother was a maverick in her day and an important influence and role model for her. Her mother owned her own flower business while raising three children. She recounted being terrified of her first job because she didn’t know what she was doing, but that did not stop her. Her passion overrode her lack of experience and led to a successful career. Burch credits her mother for teaching her about ignoring stereotypes.

“Talk to your daughters about ambition and goals the same way you talk to your sons,” says Fabiano. “When we caution girls not to appear aggressive or ‘talk big’ we are in essence telling them to hide their ambition.”

Do you know someone who inspires you to #EmbraceAmbition? Go to the Tory Burch Foundation website: http://www.toryburchfoundation.org/embraceambition, to upload a photo, tell their story and share.  You can also help support the effort by shopping Burch’s line of accessories and tees at https://www.toryburch.com/accessories-tbfoundation/.  100% of all proceeds go directly to the Foundation.

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Photo Credit: FREEDOMPIC / Shutterstock.com