Thrive
Ruth Kuguru, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Alejandra Guzmán
Balancing family, career, friendship and creativity is a big challenge for women in today's highspeed world no matter where they are. But doing it all as a newcomer to the dizzying experience of twentyfirstcentury Shanghai, far from home? Tougher still.
We talk to Ruth, Lisa, and Alejandra, the ladies whose new coffeetable book Thrive tells the stories of thirtyfour remarkable women who have built new lives for themselves and their families in Shanghai. For some of the women, their new lives have come in the form of creating new and lucrative businesses. For others, it has meant finding healing from a debilitating disease or dealing with the loss of a loved one. Still others have found purpose in charitable service, environmental advocacy or education. Many have had their first child in Shanghai, while others have embarked upon new career adventures after having "retired" from a first or even a second career.
The women both in and behind Thrive are inspiring examples of our ability as women to reinvent ourselves abroad not just in Shanghai, but all around the world!
Expat Women's Interview With Ruth, Lisa and Alejandra
Expat Women: Ruth, let's start from the beginning. How did the three of you meet and whose idea was it to create the book Thrive?
Ruth: The
best way to explain it is that Ale had an idea, I had a vision and Lisa
had a dream. Ale wanted to write a book that could be a resource to
help and inform women about the inner potential of supporting spouses
who move to a new place. Her idea helped ground my vision, which is to
develop authentic, crosscultural books that provide unique
perspectives. Ale's idea and my vision were then crystallized through
Lisa's dream and decision to commit some serious time to writing the
book.
In terms of how we met, Ale and I met in Shanghai at the
healthcare company where we both worked. She shared the initial idea
with me and I knew right away that I wanted to work with her. Lisa and I
knew each other in Delaware and when we found out we were both moving
to China, we met up again in Shanghai!
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Expat Women: How did you juggle external work with the time and writing pressures of coordinating Thrive? |
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Ruth: Balancing
everything, including raising children was difficult, so Ale and I did
end up leaving our healthcare company jobs during this project so that
we could commit ourselves fully to the successful completion of this
book. Lisa was working with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) and
freelance writing and also had to scale back on external activities. The
last eight months of the project was especially gruelling, so Ale, Lisa
and I certainly devoted all of our work energy to Thrive in those last months. |
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Expat Women: What did you learn from your interviews with all of the women featured in Thrive? |
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Ruth: We
learned that whether your name is Lizzy Gonzalez from Colombia
relocating with her husband to China, or Victoria Scott trailing from
the United Kingdom to Brazil and then to Shanghai, or Michelle Obama
moving from Chicago to Washington DC, there are some universal
challenges, triumphs, truths and themes that ring true to thriving in
any new setting. |
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Expat Women: Please elaborate on some of those truths and themes. |
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Ruth/Ale/Lisa: Our goal was not to be prescriptive, but
through the diversity of the women show, that what we have in common is
the everyday choice to define and redefine success on our own terms and
to live with intention.
The theme of each woman's story represents their journey and
elements we feel are necessary components for thriving, for example: "Immerse" yourself in your environment to appreciate it; you need the support of "Friends"; and you must have "Courage" to live your dreams even in the face of fear.
It is important to us that women are encouraged to thrive, both at
home and abroad, so at the end of each story, there is a question
designed to provoke the reader's thoughts. In addition, we included a
code on the back flap cover of the book that allows readers to download a
fiveweek book club guide, that we hope also helps readers create their
own support group(s), to help them achieve the quality of life to which
they aspire. Having the support of each other allowed the three of us
to live our dream and we would like to see that replicated around the
world. |
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Expat Women: If
you could offer five pieces of advice to equally ambitious women
planning a teamoriented publishing project, what would they be? |
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Ruth/Ale/Lisa:
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Do Your Homework. Some tips are cliché because
they are irrefutably true. Our team did a lot of research everything
from trips to bookstores to see what we liked and did not like, to
visiting a printing company and feeling paper weight, to identifying the
women chosen for the book. Ruth attended a summer weeklong publishing
course in New York, Lisa took writing courses and became a part of the
Shanghai Literary scene, and Ale worked with web designers,
photographers, lawyers and more; |
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| 2. |
Know the Rules of Engagement. If it is a new team,
it is very important to discuss your "ground rules" at the beginning.
For example, what happens if there is not consensus on a decision? Is it
"majority rules"? Will there be equality in all the decisions and
amongst the decisionmakers? Sometimes the hardest things to discuss are
ownership and finances. Have those conversations early on and know when
to bend so as not to break. Just as in life, in publishing we learned
things along the way and had to be willing and able to change course at
any given time. It is easier to adjust when you have a solid foundation
upon which decisions are made. As a team, we are still learning new
things every day (even from our mistakes). |
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| 3. |
Women are Venus. It is said that women are
communicators, but even amongst a team of women, we come from different
backgrounds and experiences. When we started this project, Ale was in
her late twenties, Ruth in her thirties and Lisa in her late forties.
Our roots are from three different countries and we have children
ranging from soontobe born to college graduate. It was important that
we found the best ways to communicate effectively over the course of two
years. This meant first, understanding our strengths and then
capitalizing on them for the benefit of the group. In other words, find
your lane and stay in it unless asked (smile). We held team meetings
weekly in person and via Skype. We used email extensively to share
information. And we tried to remember that each member of the team
brings different gifts to the table; |
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Keep Your Eyes on the Prize. Our team had an agreement from the beginning that our relationship with
each other was more important than any project. We were fortunate that
Ale's idea, Ruth's vision and Lisa's dream were complementary. And while
these things moved us, our promise to each other overcame any
challenge. Deep down, we knew Thrive was more than a collection of stories; and |
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It's who You Know. The most important tip may be the hardest. On any team, surround
yourself with people you trust. Even in moments of exhaustion and
tension, we always had a mutual respect for each other and knew that our
levels of commitment to this project were equally high that this was
something we would not only do for free because we believed in it so
much, but that we would pay for the opportunity to do it and do it
together. |
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Expat Women: What is your hope for readers of Thrive? |
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Ruth/Ale/Lisa: It is our hope that the stories of these
women from 18 different countries will inspire and encourage readers to
become more intentional about figuring out for themselves what it takes
to thrive. |
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| Expat Women: Finally, what is it about Shanghai that makes it so addictive? |
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Ruth/Ale/Lisa: What
makes Shanghai so addictive today is the same thing that made it so for
centuries it is a port city steeped in Chinese history, modern
marvels and a myriad of cultures, always having the world on its shores.
Within one city block you can see one of the tallest skyscrapers in the
world and an ancient row house. We love the energy of the place and
people, the food and like everyone else, shopping from street vendors
to name brands. We call it "New York on steroids!" |
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Expat Women: Ruth,
Lisa and Alejandra, we applaud you for not just for embarking on such
an ambitious expatrelated project, but for being able to work together
so wonderfully as a team to bring this dream to fruition.
Congratulations and all the very best with sales of your new book! |
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