The New Power Girls: Women Entrepreneurs On The Role Of Faith In Business

Let's face it. It takes a lot of guts to put your neck out and launch a startup. It takes a lot of courage to walk into a major VC firm like Lightspeed or Spark Capital and ask for money. It takes bravery and determination to create a vision, be it the small local business or the media empire of Oprah Winfrey, who started out exactly like anybody else in this country before becoming the business powerhouse she is. It takes the belief in yourself, your ideas, God, your talent, abilities, knowledge, and all kinds of other things to make the jump, take the gamble, or ride the risk.

Power Girls have faith in themselves and their ideas. In fact, they live by it.

It's something that we see all the time among the women founders we've met and know, and something that we as entrepreneurs have experienced ourselves. Both NPG co-creator Meghan Cleary and myself have taken meetings at enormous companies. In the three years I owned my first startup Stylediary, we saw business interest, including acquisition, from at least two dozen major internet, media or entertainment brands. My current company 9 is seeing the same in just less than a year. Meghan's landed book deals and TV correspondent gigs, and just recently launched her own signature footwear and accessories line. Talk about pressure. Today's new modern women entrepreneurs are no strangers to high stakes, big names and big-time decisions. They're also who bankrolls their lifestyle, homes, cars, and whatever else in their world.

"It's live without a net," Meghan once said as we criss-crossed Los Angeles on our way to a meeting at Yahoo. I was in the passenger's seat putting on mascara as we raced to make a 2:00.

For entrepreneur and TV/media personality Sal Morgan, Australia's number one celebrity journalist, it was having faith in her ability to carve a niche by moving to Hollywood years ago. Today she's not just the country's A-list Hollywood correspondent, but has the respect and relationships with dozens of top celebrities, publicists, fashion designers brands and stars.

"I just didn't want to be that woman who had wished she had done it," said Morgan while we pregamed for the New Power Girls conversational web video series earlier this year at the gorgeous Oceana hotel in Santa Monica. "Sometimes what seems like a step back is really a step forward. You lose nothing by trying."

It's a sentiment echoed among the hundreds of female founders on our New Power Girls email subscriber list. From internet entrepreneurs to digital media moguls to food and fashion empresses, women in today's business market keep the faith - in themselves, in their talents and most of all in their ideas.

To hear what Meghan and I have to say about this week's topic, visit NPGDaily.com.