Cambridge Business Association
Grow Your Value
Book

Grow Your Value

Living and Working to Your Full Potential

Mika Brzezinski
Perseus Books, 2015
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Editorial Rating

7

Recommendation

Co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and best-selling author Mika Brzezinski seems to have it all – celebrity, a successful career, marriage and children. Yet even as she worked to empower other women through her books and seminars, Brzezinski questioned her own worth as a wife and mother. Here, she details her journey to find the same value in her personal life that she achieved professionally. As a mother, Brzezinski confesses to feeling guilty. She says other successful women are unwilling to address this topic, though thousands of books and articles on the issue beg to differ. Readers may find her problems – reconciling success, fame and salary with neglecting her family – enviable. And some may have difficulty relating to the experiences of the high-level working women Brzezinski depicts as her inner circle, including Olympian Bonny Warner Simi, former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers and cosmetic queen Bobbi Brown. Nonetheless, getAbstract believes women facing professional challenges will enjoy getting to know them and will find value in Brzezinski’s account of her quest for inner harmony.

Summary

The Silent Struggle

The panel of prestigious women who convened for the White House Summit on Working Families in 2014 included women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Black Entertainment Television (BET) CEO Debra Lee and president of the Rockefeller Foundation Judith Rodin. Mika Brzezinski, co-anchor of MSNBC’s daily news show Morning Joe, moderated the forum. She asked a question that prompted awkward silence. “You have dynamic careers; any unexpected personal strain from that?” The women who’d been so candid about their challenges making their way in the higher echelons of the male-dominated fields of business and government didn’t respond. Finally, Lee said, “Maybe none that I want to talk about.” The others were no more forthcoming. They seemed to feel stigmatized by the question.

Brzezinski felt her husband and daughters paid a price for her career success. She was exhausted and emotionally depleted at day’s end. Her job caused her to miss sporting events and school activities. Her family resented her absence. She wanted to know how other accomplished women addressed similar challenges. Women’s jobs affect their...

About the Author

Co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, Mika Brzezinski is the author of The New York Times bestseller Knowing Your Value and the mother of two daughters.

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    S. K. 8 years ago
    I liked the concise writing of the summary but I gave this book by Mika Brzezenski a thumbs-down because it seems to merely offer stale advise and brought nothing new to the table. a) It only focused on married women and discarded the notion that in the world of ageing parents, lots of single professional women also make it to the top and struggle with the question their work-family-friendship balance. b) In one example I am particularly startled that a job promotion was turned down without consideration of external assistance eg extended family help or au pairs. Such refreshing ideas would seem appropriate in our fast moving society to ensure women retain the choice to break new ground even at home.