Finding Success Without A Mentor
Padma Lakshmi is an accomplished author, actress, host, and producer. Now, she can also add recipient of the 2019 New York Women In Communication’s Matrix Awards. Lakshmi was honored alongside fellow recipients CBS’s Norah O’Donnell and BET’s Jeanine D. Liburd on May 6th, 2019 in New York City. Even though the day was all about championing strong women and thanking mentors, Lakshmi reflected on her own experience and rise to success.
She admitted she didn’t have those career mentors like her counterparts at the prestigious luncheon. During the luncheon, she remarked, “I didn’t have a roadmap or anyone to turn to for counsel. It would be decades before I was lucky enough to befriend women that I admired, who then I shamelessly and openly started pumping right away for advice.” She also said, “I would have loved to intern at Martha Stewart’s but I didn’t know how to get to her…so I didn’t have a career mentor.” She reflected on her success saying she was “flailing in the dark most of the time [and] the fact that I’m standing here today is as much as a surprise for me as to any of you….I don’t know how I did it. I just tried to make the most of the opportunities that came to me. There was really no grand master plan.” She added, “I think back on my 20’s and my 30’s, it would have been much much easier if I had that kind of guidance.” Even though Lakshmi lists her mother and grandmother, who was a nurse and a teacher, as her biggest inspirations, she still confesses, “ I know I definitely could have used the counseling of experience and accomplished women in my field way earlier then I got it. That’s why this organization is so important. That’s why this lunch matters so much.”
Then speaking to the crowd, Lakshmi challenged the women in the room not only to seek a mentor but volunteer themselves to others. “ I want more importantly to challenge every successful woman who is able, regardless of age, to seek out women they can help and offer mentorship to them. That way all the pain that we suffer learning everything the hard way won’t be for nothing. We can turn those painful lessons that we all went through into power for other women.”
Now, a big part of Lakshmi’s personal success hinges on helping others. Despite her own path and lack of having a mentor, she has made helping other women a big part of her mission and is encouraging others to do the same. “I really want to encourage other women to do what I’ve done now on the other side, which is to find three or four women that you think have potential and help them. Use your resources [and] experience to just give them a little leg up. We all need help sometimes…there are tons of hard-working young women around us that would really benefit from that.
The 2019 Matrix Award Honorees & Presenters:
- Padma Lakshmi, Host and Executive Producer, “Top Chef,” Best-Selling Author, Food Expert, Ambassador for ACLU Immigration & Women’s Health, United Nations Development Programme;
- Presented by Sarah Barnett, President, Entertainment Networks, AMC Networks
- Kate Lewis, Chief Content Officer, Hearst Magazines
- Presented by Jessica Pels, Editor In Chief, Cosmopolitan
- Jeanine D. Liburd, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, BET Networks
- Presented by Bob Bakish, President & CEO, Viacom
- Susan Magrino, Chairman & CEO, Magrino PR
- Presented by Martha Stewart, Emmy Award-winning Television Host, Entrepreneur, Best-selling author and Lifestyle Expert
- Norah O’Donnell, Co-Host, “CBS This Morning”, Contributor, “60 Minutes,” CBS News
- Presented by Gayle King, Co-host, “CBS This Morning”, Editor at Large, O The Oprah Magazine
- Kathy Ring, CEO, Starcom USA
- Presented by Renetta McCann, Chief Inclusion Experience Officer, Publicis Groupe
- Lisa Sherman, President and CEO, The Ad Council
- Presented by Bruce Gordon, Retired Verizon Executive, Former CEO, NAACP
- Sally Susman, Executive Vice President, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Pfizer
- Presented by Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD, CEO, Pfizer
– Melissa Unger
