\u00a0<\/em>Then came the inevitable emotional peaks and troughs that moved my na\u00efve self-belief into a crumbling, self-hating wreck that wanted the earth to swallow me up.\u00a0\u00a0Such as the time I crashed the new car I was recklessly test-driving at an automotive client\u2019s fun car rally (thankfully only the car was\u00a0hurt).\u00a0\u00a0Or the time I accidentally threw away a bag of competition entries and had to rummage through stinking rubbish bins in the staff car park to find them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Regrets? I\u2019ve had a few.<\/p>\n But over the course of a 30-year career that has taken me from jobs in advertising agencies to movie studios, theme parks and newspapers, what lessons have I learned?<\/p>\n Well, I\u2019d love to picture myself as a platinum-coiffed Meryl Streep, sitting in a corner view office, wearing Prada and pearls, smiling serenely while giving you sage advice. Yet the true picture might be more like this: tired, stressed, messy hair, with a view of the pollution, hitting a trough of deadlines and more self-doubt. But loving it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You see, career fact seldom resembles movie fiction, or the pages of Fortune magazine. Yes, I\u2019ve learned to adapt, to grow, to know how to lead and who to follow. To strive for quality and challenge inequality. Like any responsible executive, I\u2019ve been guided by words of wisdom collected over the years: \u201cIf in doubt, check it out\u201d; \u201cBetter to do something small and excellent, than something big and average\u201d; \u201cDo what you love, love what you do\u201d. There have also been wisdoms that seem harder to achieve: \u201cListen more than you speak\u201d, \u201cStay Zen. Count to 10.\u201d<\/p>\n But the big lesson is that nobody\u2019s perfect. Deep down, I am still the same trainee account executive that makes mistakes, has fears, doubts and personality flaws. Only now, I am a middle-aged businesswoman who\u2019s supposed to know better, having worked a lifetime.<\/p>\n Influences by the movie Working Girl, Anne’s advise is to give yourself a break<\/p><\/div>\n So if I were to travel back in time to visit my aspirational younger self, during the \u201cWorking Girl\u201d era (1988: check it out, it\u2019s a cute movie where Melanie Griffith goes from office lackey to top dog), I would have two pieces of advice for myself. One: \u201cGive yourself a break. It\u2019s ok to screw up. If your head and heart are in the right place, you\u2019ll learn and grow.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0And two: \u201cHave patience. Life\u2019s a journey.\u201d<\/p>\n I still need to remind myself of such wisdom, even today. Because we never really stop screwing up; though we don\u2019t tend to make the same mistakes. (I have a Pavlovian aversion to competition entries and test-driving shiny new cars). But that doesn\u2019t mean that just around the corner, there isn\u2019t a new lesson waiting to be learned the hard way.<\/p>\n As they say, the greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. It\u2019s OK to screw up and learn, so have faith and you\u2019ll have the time of your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of our Women in Leadership series, Anne Wong of Universal Pictures realises that it\u2019s OK to make mistakes When I began a career in advertising in the \u201980s, the world was a different place. The charts were topped with the sounds of George Michael, telling me I \u201cgotta have Faith\u201d, Belinda Carlisle was crooning \u201cHeaven is a Place on Earth\u201d and Patrick Swayze was dirty dancing to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[581,380,580],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-inspiration","tag-leadership","tag-universal-pictures"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Working](\"https:\/\/cbbcfocus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Working-girl.jpg\")