An independent woman takes personal responsibility in her life, to aim to become financially free through entrepreneurship.
Does this describe you?
If so, you may have been stigmatized as selfish, cold …. even stuck up.
Yes, there are haters out there who hate on women entrepreneurs and high achievers for building wealth to become financially free. The reason is a simple one, according to entrepreneur Shinjini Das.
Jealousy.
Jealousy divides us. Instead, we should be supporting each other to get after our finances and create abundant lives.
That’s exactly the message that Das shared in a recent interview with Capitalism.com. She says we shouldn’t demonize entrepreneurs who are building wealth through valuable businesses that serve a gap in the market.
So where is this negative perception of capitalism, of becoming financially free through entrepreneurship, coming from? And how do we change it?
“I think that entrepreneurship is very sexy,” Das explained. “I think it has a very sexy image and drive, just a halo around it. I think part of our job is also to say that ‘Hey, it’s not all glamorous. It’s actually a lot of work.'”
Das was invited by The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center to share the biggest lie in building and scaling a business. She highlighted the importance of audience development prior to focusing only on generating revenue. Photo Credit: Minea H
Das became a CEO of her own company, Das Media Group, at age 24. She went to college to become an industrial engineer, a field dominated by men. As of 2016, just 17.1 percent of industrial engineers in the U.S. were women.
After working at Deloitte and consulting as a business technology analyst, Das soon realized that she wanted to run her own business. Now, at age 26, Das says one of the major takeaways from running her own business is, with the freedom of entrepreneurship comes responsibility.
“Yes, it is freedom. Yes, you’re your own boss, but understand that that comes with a lot of territory that you have to handle and teams you have to manage, and teams and just a wide variety of tasks that you have to now handle that you probably wouldn’t have had to handle if you were working for someone else,” she said.
As a public figure, Das has been outspoken on a number of issues, including why more women and men must become financially free.
Das was invited by ABC 10, an ABC TV affiliate in Sacramento, to share the top apps to get kids interested in STEM. She empowered children to build technologies which will create positive change. High paying STEM jobs can lead to financial freedom. Photo Credit: ABC 10 Mornings Sacramento
Building wealth and creating financial independence gives entrepreneurs the freedom to innovate and create change, and it’s that abundance mindset that Das continues to foster. “Literally there’s unlimited financial security that you can obtain” from entrepreneurship, she said.
How did Das realize she could become financially free?
Das grew up in a family with a single income for the majority of her life. She was born in India, raised in her early youth in Malaysia, and came to the United States at age nine. It wasn’t until she reached her teenage years that she told herself, “I want to be financially independent, because I think that money is freeing.”
“I don’t think that being a millionaire should be the goal for everybody,” Das said. “But to me, if you are a millionaire, it means that you’ve impacted a million people, which is really what I want to do. That’s exciting, but that would be freeing because you wouldn’t have to think about money—you would think about how to empower more people.”
To become financially free doesn’t mean you have to impact a million people. It can be as simple as having enough money to cover your basic needs and have some fun.
“You don’t have to think about where your next meal is going to come from, or whether or not you can buy those heels,” Das explained. “Should you buy those heels? That’s a different question, but you at least know that you are able to.”
Das takes financial freedom very seriously. “You have to be financially savvy,” she said, explaining that to become financially free means owning the responsibility of your finances. And, she adds, that she too is still learning about finances to best educate herself. “This is not something that your boyfriend handles or your husband handles. It is something that you have to take responsibility for and that is a part of being a Go-Getter Girl.”
That’s Das’ brand name: the Go-Getter Girl. She associates the term with a woman who has goals and who is unapologetically ambitious about achieving those goals.
These are women who “understand that it involves a significant amount of sacrifice, a significant amount of investment” in themselves, their business and their financial future.
In societies around the globe, and even areas of American culture, Go-Getter Girl types are still stigmatized, again, as stuck-up or selfish. Das continues to work to break this stigma through her messages on social media and in a book due out later this year.
“That’s my latest thing. Don’t be jealous and don’t demonize ’cause whatever we’re doing, you can do it too,” she said. “That is my message as the Go-Getter Girl is you can be a go-getter too. I think that’s the best way to handle it. Say, ‘Okay, cool, you’re jealous. You’re demonizing it. Why don’t you become an entrepreneur and see for yourself?'”
Be a go-getter with Das by following her journey @SpeakerShinjini on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Snapchat.
If you’re a go-getter, we want to hear from you! Share your message by becoming a contributor on Capitalism.com by completing this form.
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