I first met Michelle L Marquez back in law school and from the first moment that I met her I knew she would be someone special, she just had that glint in her eye. She told me on day one that she wanted to work in the securities commission on the stock exchange, or failing that she wanted to work on the fraud prevention squad. As you can imagine I was a little taken aback by this until I learned that this was what her father had done in the past, working with a law group to clean up Wall Street and she wanted to do the same. In the years that followed she did exactly what she said she was going to and now works with the securities commission and occasionally dabbles in arbitration hearings. I think that we can all learn something from this brilliant woman and here are the skills which took her to the top.
Ruthless
When Michelle Marquez first started in the stock exchange there were very few women there and she had to deal with a barrage of abuse. Michelle knew that the only way in which she would be able to succeed in accomplishing her dream would be to become ruthless and do whatever it took to get to the top, all within reason of course. This ruthlessness helped her to grow a thick skin and that is how she got through those first few years.
Focus
What Michelle Marquez told me on our first day at university was the same thing that she had been saying to herself since she was a little girl, and it was also what she went on to achieve. This demonstrates an incredible ability to focus on your goals and then to show the concentration to go and achieve them. Michelle was never distracted from what she wanted to do and she chased after that dream until she got her hands on it. This is a skill which many of us should be lucky to have.
Passion
None of the things that Michelle Marquez achieved would have been possible if she wasn’t passionate about what she is doing. If she didn’t love the law and in particular the law around the stock exchange, there is no way that she would have lasted this long and there is no way that she would have remained so focus to achieve her goals. Michelle’s love for the job and desire to follow in her late father’s footsteps is what brought her here and the ruthlessness, the dedication and the focus were in fact all by-products of her steely passion and desire to achieve great things.
I could continue to write for pages upon pages but for me these are the 3 skills or attributes which really sum up this amazing woman.
Do you know someone like Michelle? Someone who inspires you? If so let us know about them in the comments.
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