Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy
Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy book cover

Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy

Hardcover – October 31, 2017

Price
$13.99
Format
Hardcover
Pages
256
Publisher
Seal Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1580056915
Dimensions
6.38 x 0.88 x 9.31 inches
Weight
15.6 ounces

Description

"This book is a must-read for anyone in business. Power Up gives real, pragmatic advice on how to charter your own destiny, especially when the odds are stacked against you."--Julie Wainwright, Founder and CEO of The RealReal"Magdalena and I worked together in the early days of the Internet, introducing concepts that were completely revolutionary, such as the electronic wallet. She is a fearless entrepreneur who worked hard to help early online merchants get off the ground. Some of them went on to become giants, like Amazon. I urge women to be bold like Magdalena and follow their dreams."--Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google and parent company Alphabet"I wish I could have given Magdalena Yesil's book to my two daughters when they graduated from college. It's the perfect gift for any young woman navigating her career. I am definitely giving it to my two girls, and just as importantly, to their boyfriends, too.--Steve Blank, entrepreneur, professor, and author of The Startup Owner's Manual and Four Steps to Epiphany "My professional mission is to empower women through fashion. Power Up resonated strongly with me. I highly recommend its confident career guidance from an impressive roster of top women leaders."--Karen Watkins, Chief Operating Officer of Christian Dior"When I reached out to Magdalena in my early days of founding Pono, I benefited greatly from her wisdom and guidance. She is a pragmatic, down to earth person who helped me a lot."--Neil Young, composer, musician, and Founder of digital music startup Pono"Technology is changing how business is conducted in all industries. Women who seize technology related opportunities and put the advice offered in Power Up to work will confidently transform businesses and emerge as future leaders of the new economy."--Ron Conway, Founder of SVAngel"Magdalena Yesil offers powerful leadership lessons from her journey to becoming a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. She drops the reader into vividly recounted, career-defining moments to help them navigate and overcome gender bias in their own lives."--Caroline Simard, Senior Director of Research at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University"This book should be required reading for anyone building a company or making a career as we head into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The lessons Magdalena Yesil offers from her remarkable work pioneering the commercial Internet are more relevant than ever."--Murat Sonmez, member of the World Economic Forum Managing Board" Power Up offers the no-nonsense optimism and encouragement women need to persevere in technology, an industry where so much is stacked against them. It's crammed with sage advice and insider stories to enlighten the next-generation of women in tech."--Adriana Gascoigne, Founder and CEO of Girls in Tech Magdalena Yesil is a founder, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist of many of the world's top technology companies, including Salesforce, where she was the first investor and founding board member. Her investing career started at US Venture Partners. She is a founder of Broadway Angels, an angel group of female investors. A technology pioneer, Yesil cofounded three companies dedicated to commercializing Internet access, e-commerce infrastructure, and electronic payments. UUnet, CyberCash, and MarketPay earned her the Entrepreneur of the Year title from Red Herring magazine. Her current company, DriveInformed, uses technology to bring trust and transparency to the auto finance industry.

Features & Highlights

  • With empowering insights to help women navigate the narrowest corridors of sexism, tech-industry pioneer Magdalena Yesil shares on-the-ground career advice that is as powerful as any MBA
  • Pioneering Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Magdalena Yesil came to the United States in 1976 with two suitcases and $43, blind to the challenges she would face as a woman and immigrant in Silicon Valley. Today, she is best known as the first investor and a founding board member of Salesforce, the now-multibillion dollar company that ushered in the era of cloud-based computing. In
  • Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy,
  • Yesil urges women to look beyond the alarming gender statistics of the workplace and feel confident entering tech or any field-but also to be prepared to deal with the challenges. She shares what she experienced as a woman in Silicon Valley with surprising candor and heart, relying not just on her insight but that of more than a dozen top women entrepreneurs to offer pragmatic takeaways on topics such as: · Owning career choices while managing risk · Getting credit for your work · Managing sexual dynamics · Recruiting allies in the movement toward a supportive workplace for everyone Pragmatic, incisive, and full of highly actionable advice, Yesil prepares ambitious women to break glass ceilings and rise to the top in the New Silicon Valley -- and beyond.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(149)
★★★★
25%
(62)
★★★
15%
(37)
★★
7%
(17)
-7%
(-17)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

“Whatever the obstacle, I find a way to flow”

This book is a great read and truly awe inspiring! Not only is it well written but it’s full of stories that so many women can relate to working in a male dominated industry. Magdalena shares the highs and lows of both her personal and professional journey as an immigrant to her progression and rise in her professional career.

She highlights the obstacles that have confronted her and other women and provides some practical and actionable advice on how to handle oneself when faced with similar situations.
While this is a book written about women for women, a lot of what’s in this book can be applicable to anyone navigating and growing their career.

There are so many valuable lessons and take aways in this book, and how lucky we are to have such great female leaders really setting the bar so high! Magdalena has charted her own course when there wasn’t a road map for women to follow. Thank you for sharing your journey and your story and the stories of so many other great female leaders.
7 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

An Amazing Role Model!

Ms. Yesil is clearly an incredibly driven, thoughtful person, who by sheer determination has achieved amazing success. As a role model for young women and men trying to achieve success both in the boardroom and at home, she sets herself apart. I would highly recommend this book, which can help people navigate what is truly important in their lives.
5 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

this Book will change how you take on your career - for the better!

“We must give ourselves latitude to screw up.” Thanks to advice like that and stories that shows Magdalena practices what she preaches, I found this book extremely liberating. If Magdalena and others whose stories she shares were able not just to survive but thrive in the Silicon Valley of the 1980s, then success is in reach for those of us dealing with today’s polarized climate. But man, she does have some hair raising stories about those days! She’s a powerhouse, and i walked away from the book inspired with a list of ideas for some of the things I’ve been working on improving in my work life.
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Entertaining and important messages here!

A very good book for everyone in the workplace, really, but especially for young women getting ready to enter the workplace. I particularly like her experiences and advice on navigating through inappropriate behavior in the workplace. This is a real life book and shows what is still possible in this country if you are willing to work hard but more importantly, she also explains how to work smart as well.

Don't let the fact that it is entertaining fool you...the subjects she covers are important and well conveyed.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

How Smart Women Win in the New Economy" was very inspirational

"Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy" was very inspirational. This is not a dry, boring text book; rather it is about a woman who has worked diligently and experienced all the workplace situations that one may encounter. I plan to give to all the young women I know for Christmas. Thank you Magdalena.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

An inside look at how women win

Power Up offers great stories, anecdotes, and words of advice, such as this one: "Although audacity is your friend, entitlement is not" and "We don't have total control over how others see us. But we can control the degree to which we see ourselves as outsiders." Magdalena Yesil's wonderful book - part memo, part how to - has arrived at just the right time: when gender tension, problems, and confusion are the norm. The book, like the author, is pragmatic about how to move forward in a constructive way.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Inspirational and authentic read

I enjoyed reading this text as a new and working parent. Magdalena's perspective blends thoughtful values with hard work and applies them to both professional and personal life. The insight offered in Power Up is refreshing and applicable to the modern American experience for a wide range of stakeholders. I highly recommend this book and learning from Magdalena's lived experience in business and the many enriching relationships she's fostered along the way.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Important and inspirational lessons for all, for business and life

A lot of the great attributes and accolades for Power UP have already been said in these reviews but I want to add my own unique perspective and thoughts. I also wish to emphasize up front that Yesil’s book is filled with valuable tips and information not normally found in everyday business books - it’s a rich resource for any student or those in the workplace, or desiring to enter the workplace.

What really touched me in Power UP! was not just the stories of the 27 women Magdalena interviewed, not just her amazing and fun personal stories of how she persevered, powered through situations and powered up her fearlessness, but the stories of her mother and father and the life lessons they instilled in her. Yesil’s parents provided a solid, loving foundation of intellect, trust, and freedom for her to dream, explore and make mistakes. Yesil learned and applied discipline, fierce resiliency, ‘unflappable’ self esteem and confidence which provided a beacon for her to navigate through life.

I fell in love with Magdalen’s father in the first chapter with his powerful yet gentle support and unbound confidence in his daughter’s dreams and goals. He was able to tell his young, precious little girl that she would survive in the roughest part of Chicago, living in the United States all alone where she had never been before. My heart first ached then burst with elation for Magdalena’s incredibly talented mother, who like so many females, prioritized everyone else's needs over her own. She utilized her linguistic talents (seven languages!) to enrich people’s lives everyday through connection, laughter, joy and wisdom in her first job, and with it her independence at the age of 63!. What a magnificent woman - she makes us realize that it is never too late to get started nor to be a positive force in the lives of others.

This is an important book for people of all ages, creeds, and race; for educators of children and adults, for parents, workers, managers and entrepreneurs - not just young girls and women.

Power UP! is a lesson for us to believe in ourselves and persevere through hardships. It’s a lesson for all citizens in our society to work together to help make certain that our children and neighbors are provided the opportunity to shine. Parents and peers are a critical component in providing a positive influence in our lives and careers so that everyone wins. I hope readers come away with the inspiration to be a candle for and within ourselves, and to share this light with others to brighten lives.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Magdalena advises to flow like water around boulders of closed doors and failures

As an angel investor, I am in awe of the woman who wrote the early angel check to SalesForce and then served on its board for 6 years - and! championed changing the sales model during low-liquidity post dot.com crash. I love Magdalena's quote "You're a lunatic until you are a genius." Thank you, Magdalena, for sharing your insights.
2 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Best Book I've Read All Year

Hands down, the best book I've read all year. Power Up is the most helpful book for any woman (or man) looking to power up in their career or build a new career from scratch. Magdalena Yesil doesn't just give advice, she's lived it. I was amazed at how someone who came to the United States from a poor country could take every bit of adversity thrown at her and turn it into strength. She's managed to do the impossible and work her way to the top through nothing but sheer willpower. This book not only inspired me to do the same, but taught me the skills to do it.
2 people found this helpful