F E AT U R E
sion will make my daughters want to succeed themselves and find their own passion. They will be guided by the same inner flame and drive when they grow up. It is important to have an amazing balance of both, but it is also good to never put pressure on yourself to have this perfect balance constantly – doing your best and putting your passion and love into your family and career is key.
CLARE HOLBROOK
Communications Manager at Estée Lauder, living in Dubai
VALERIE MESSIKA
Individual wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of everyone working within Messika Paris, is extremely important to me. What do you hope your children will take away from seeing their mum build a career? As a woman and CEO, I want to pass down this competence, drive, and feeling of empowerment. You need to work hard to
fulfil your dream. I try to pass down my passion to my girls. My daughters are still young, they don’t know exactly what we do but they understand that we work on amazing creations. What have you learnt about yourself as a mother and a career woman since having children? I have learnt that being a mum who has made her work her pas-
How has your career mindset changed since having children? I work to provide for my baby but also to give myself some sanity. Once I got this into my head I went back to enjoying my work because I felt the purpose again. My life had changed, every tiny particle of it and that scared me initially, there was so much to juggle, the working mum guilt mixed with the desire to still be on my A-game. I had to rejig what that meant to survive! What I figured out was once I accepted that things weren’t going to go back to what they were I was more comfortable with what it was. My life is different, not completely unrecognisable, but different. Ambition and motherhood can go hand in hand you just need to learn to give yourself a break, you’re doing the best you can.
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