"A girl is inspired by an ambitious woman to ponder the word and claim it for herself as well"--

Illustrations and rhyming text reclaim words often used to put down girls and women while introducing the letters of the alphabet.

*Named a Best Business Book of 2020 by Fortune and Bloomberg* Full of empowering wisdom from one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs, this inspiring leadership book offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals. Shellye Archambeau recounts how she overcame the challenges she faced as a young black woman, wife, and mother, managing her personal and professional responsibilities while climbing the ranks at IBM and subsequently in her roles as CEO. Through the busts and booms of Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, this bold and inspiring book details the risks she took and the strategies she engaged to steer her family, her career, and her company MetricStream toward success. Through her journey, Shellye discovered that ambition alone is not enough to achieve success. Here, she shares the practical strategies, tools, and approaches readers can employ right now, including concrete steps to most effectively: Dismantle impostor syndrome Capitalize on the power of planning Take risks Developing financial literacy Build your network Establish your reputation Take charge of your career Integrate work, marriage, parenthood, and self-care Each chapter lays out key takeaways and actions to increase the odds of achieving your personal and professional goals. With relatable personal stories that ground her advice in the real world and a foreword by leading venture capitalist and New York Times bestselling author Ben Horowitz, Unapologetically Ambitious invites readers to move beyond the solely supportive roles others expect them to fill, to learn how to carefully tread the thin line between assertive and aggressive, and to give themselves permission to strive for the top. Make no apologies for the height of your ambitions. Shellye Archambeau will show you how.

In this captivating and radical look at “work-life balance,” Lara Bazelon reframes our understanding of working women—and shows how prioritizing your career benefits mothers, kids, and society at large. In this singular cultural moment, mothers have unparalleled opportunities to succeed at work while continuing to face the same societal impediments that held back our mothers and grandmothers. We still encounter entrenched gender bias in the workplace and are expected to shoulder the lion’s share of labor and burdens at home while being made to feel as if we’re never doing enough. All the while we’re told that the perfect work-life balance is possible, if only we try hard enough to achieve it. It’s time to change the conversation—about work, life, and “balance.” Work and life are inextricably, intimately intertwined. We need to celebrate what we do give our children—even and especially in moments of imbalance—rather than apologizing for what we don’t. In this way, we can model for our children how we use our talents to help others and raise awareness about the issues closest to our hearts. We can embrace the personal fulfillment and financial independence that pursuing meaningful work can bring as a way of showing our children how to live happy, purpose-driven lives. Bazelon argues not only that we can but that we should. Being ambitious at work and being a good mother to our children are not at odds—these qualities mutually reinforce each other. Backed up by research and filled with personal stories from Bazelon’s life, as well as that of her mother and the many other women she interviewed across the cultural and financial spectrum, Ambitious Like a Mother is an anthem, a beacon for all to recognize and celebrate the pioneering women who reject the false idols of the Selfless Mother and Work-Life Balance, and a call to embrace your own ambitions and model your multiplicities for your children.

The Ambitious Woman illustrates how ambitious women embody characteristics such as inspiration, empowerment, and motivation to help others accomplish their goals, and create win-win relationships in all areas of life. When you think of the word 'ambitious', what comes to mind? Power hungry? Getting ahead no matter what it takes? Someone who runs over others to accomplish their goals? While many people may have a negative view of what it means to be ambitious, author, motivational speaker and women's movement leader, Esther Spina, is not one of them. In fact, in The Ambitious Woman, Esther shows that Ambitious Women are found in all walks of life - the famous and the not-so-famous. They embody characteristics such as inspiration, empowerment and motivation to help people accomplish their goals. Ambitious Women can be humble and loyal; they are disciplined and have a never-give-up attitude. Real and genuine ambitious people care about others; they are not self-centered. They are "ambitious" about seeing others succeed, and creating win-win relationships in all areas of life. Using profiles of people such as Diana Nyad and Barbara Walters, The Ambitious Woman offers contemporary illustrations of people who have lived ambitious lives and what we can learn from them. The book also profiles ambitious people who are close to the author, people who live with passion, confidence and consistency in their everyday lives. Women from all walks of life will find ambitious characteristics to strive for, ones that will improve their lives, their relationships, and who they are deep down. When you become an Ambitious Woman, you, too, can help others change their lives!

If lifes' road had a manual, the Ambitious Collective seeks to be just that. Written in Chapter long unapologetic prose messages from the author; it establishes the rules of engagement of what Ambition serves you, can punish you and make you aware. The authors' colorful metaphors represent her own experiences offering the reader a guide while still leaving room for the reader to see themselves and their experiences in each. Most importantly, the Ambitious Collective is a book that challenges the reader to offer their presence to others and to forgive those unqualified as it prepares the next generation of the Ambitious Collective with the tools necessary to continue and champion the movement. A must read for young people to professionals, the Ambitious Collective seeks to be kept, passed on and discussed.

Over the past decade, a wave of Chinese international undergraduate students—mostly self-funded—has swept across American higher education. From 2005 to 2015, undergraduate enrollment from China rose from under 10,000 to over 135,000. This privileged yet diverse group of young people from a changing China must navigate the complications and confusions of their formative years while bridging the two most powerful countries in the world. How do these students come to study in the United States? What does this experience mean to them? What does American higher education need to know and do in order to continue attracting these students and to provide sufficient support for them? In Ambitious and Anxious, the sociologist Yingyi Ma offers a multifaceted analysis of this new wave of Chinese students based on research in both Chinese high schools and American higher-education institutions. Ma argues that these students’ experiences embody the duality of ambition and anxiety that arises from transformative social changes in China. These students and their families have the ambition to navigate two very different educational systems and societies. Yet the intricacy and pressure of these systems generate a great deal of anxiety, from applying to colleges before arriving, to studying and socializing on campus, and to looking ahead upon graduation. Ambitious and Anxious also considers policy implications for American colleges and universities, including recruitment, student experiences, faculty support, and career services.