Discover our mission, values, and leadership.
Explore benefits that power your success.
Browse our network of businesses.
Explore opportunities to connect and grow.
Don’t miss our upcoming Government Affairs Forum with Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg.
12/09/2025
9:45am - 11:00am
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Take advantage of exclusive perks and programs for members.
Browse our directory to find and connect with member community.
Join experiences that build relationships and spark ideas.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Level up your leadership and communication in this Boston Chamber workshop for professionals—gain essential skills in team alignment.
The Chamber Foundation invites the business community to engage with Boston Public Schools leaders and their students to help build the future workforce.
Learn how we advance talent and small business growth.
Explore our key priorities and strategic efforts.
Join us at our next Foundation event.
Misty Copeland is the first African-American female principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater’s 75-year history. Her beautiful pose—her body wide open and elegantly swooping through the air—is impressive. But what most resonates with me is the message: Picture yourself winning.
A psychotherapist by training (which was a career plot twist for me—see below), I am curious about how each person experiences the billboard. What does it mean to win—either personally or as a society?
What does it mean to picture yourself winning? I see people struggle—often profoundly—because they look like they are winning. They look like they have it all figured out. Inside, however, they may be living a very different reality—one in which their gifts and talents have been out of alignment. They are often using skills and values that they have outgrown, but are stuck about what to do about this. I recognize this because I’ve lived through it.
According to Merriam-Webster, winning is defined as: “gaining, resulting in, or relating to victory in a contest or competition.” In a city as educated, competitive, and rigorous as Boston, winning is something I think we often strive for—and struggle with, and it is expected. At what cost?
In 2016, I was definitely a professional that was “winning.” I was nominated for the Chamber’s Boston Future Leaders Program, flying all over the country speaking to founders and creating international programming. I was asked to be the speaker immediately before Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker (and about 6 feet shorter than both) at the largest startup conference with two thousand people in the audience at the Boston Convention Center. What a win for me and my professional ambitions!
To the outside eye—and by my own definition—I was winning by all measures that I had set up for myself in terms of professionalism, and these wins were HUGE for me…
But then something unexpected started transforming in my private life: a challenging, frustrating, and painstaking journey to become a parent. Sadly, it took me many years to “win” at this. While I was publicly winning on stage, privately—I was experiencing something else entirely.
Three years after beginning my journey to have a child, I finally became a mother in 2018. It was hard-won and profoundly shook my own definition of winning. By then, I had moved on to join another team helping startups win.
But something had shifted: The internal desire of becoming a parent had been realized, but what I had defined as the contest or competition in which I was winning had changed dramatically for me.
As outlined by Tamara Myles and Wes Adams in their powerful book, Meaningful Work, I focused on three key areas to redefine what meaning—and winning—meant for me.
Specifically, I focused on:
After wrestling with myself for months, I got honest with myself (having a lock-down during the Pandemic with all of that time to think actually helped with this) and made the largest adult calculated risk of my life: I left my senior director title to become an intern in social work school. It was the boldest and best decision I ever made.
Career Strategist,
Made for More Coach
Popular Resources