WORKWEEK

No matter what industry you are in, if you’re a woman in business, there are always barriers to access when it comes to reaching the pinnacle of success. 

One woman who never let those obstacles get her down when it came to chasing her crown is Priyanka Chopra Jonas. 

Today she is one of the world’s most famous actresses and recognizable people, but it took grit and grace to get there. 

And her success story wasn’t linear. 

Priyanka first came to the United States from India when she was 12 years old and stayed with relatives in New York City, Indianapolis, and, finally, Newton, Massachusetts.

However, as a starry-eyed young girl dreaming big for herself and her future, the American dream wasn’t hitting as she’d hoped. 

Classmates met her with outright racist aggression, and she generally felt alienated in a predominantly white east coast community. 

Today when she talks about her experience, she says the abuse and harassment were so severe it drove her to return to India three years later at age 15 to finish high school. 

But even racism and cruelty from her peers and a big move back home would not stop Priyanka’s shine. 

She focused on her studies and, by the age of 17, was both an aspiring aeronautical engineer and beauty queen, having been crowned the first runner-up in the Miss India competition in 2000. 

A year later, she got the crown for real when she won Miss WORLD at age 18. 

Talk about a queen on the RISE. 

With her head held high and a crown sitting pretty on top, Priyanka pivoted into the world of acting and modeling. 

She made her first film appearance in 2002 in the Tamil movie “Thamizhan,” and then a year later appeared in her first Bollywood movie (which grossed about $6.5 million). 

Talk about coming out of the gate strong! 

Fast forward to 2015, and Priyanka decides it’s time to make history, appearing as the first Indian-born actor to lead in an American network TV show as FBI Agent Alex Parrish in the hit ABC drama Quantico.

But Quantico was just the tip of the iceberg for Priyanka. 

Today she is a multi-award-winning actor and producer, and she has her own production company, Purple Pebble Pictures, which is dedicated to promoting Indian talent on the rise and regional filmmakers. 

She is also very well known for her deep commitment to humanitarian work all around the globe. 

Priyanka is just as serious about giving back as taking the stage. 

She is a part of the United Nations’ global “Girl Up” campaign, “which envisions a world where all girls, no matter where they live, have the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, counted, and positioned to be the next generation of leaders.”

And she has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2016, after working with them since 2006, helping to support their efforts through speaking engagements, public service announcements, and participating in media panels.

Outside of all the incredible achievements I’ve already covered, there are just a few more that bear mentioning: 

• Her net worth is an estimated $20 million (get it, girl) 
• In 2021 she published her memoir, “Unfinished.”
• She was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people. 
• Priyanka was given the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award in 2019 for her work with UNICEF.
• She has her non-profit, The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education, which provides schooling and medical care. 
• Lastly (but not least because we could do this all day), she is the founder of her environmentally conscious haircare line, Anomaly.

All her haters from middle school and high school can see themselves out. Buh-bye. 

Priyanka has achieved more than most of us dream of doing in a lifetime, and she still has so much left to do. 

Now a mother and married to the love of her life Nick Jonas, with a brand new hit show “Citadel,” there is nothing this woman can’t do. 

And…like a lotus, she grew through the mud of her past to get to the joy and satisfaction she experiences today.

This lotus flower is full of wisdom from her life’s journey; here are a few gems I’ve picked from my research. 

Lesson #1: Learning the art of saying no 

Though Priyanka was focused on saying yes for many years, now she’s advocating for women to learn when it’s time to say no. 

She says, “Being answerable to my work 24-7 is something I’m no longer willing to do. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a very ambitious woman. If I’ve got to do something, I make it a priority.

I’ve always been the “I’ll figure it out. It’s fine. We’ll do it” person, even if that meant working through weekends, birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. 

But then… I’m the one who ends up feeling stressed. So I’m learning to be realistic and to say no once in a while. 

By saying the word no, we think the world’s going to crash or something. We’ve given it too much power.” 

Learn from Queen P saying no won’t kill you; it will make you stronger. Boundaries are HOT.

Lesson #2: We are always evolving, and each phase of that evolution has beauty and value

As women age, our societal value is often seen as declining. This bias has got to stop, and Priyanka has the perfect verbal medicine for us: 

“The beauty of life is you find that every decade brings a different grace to you, a different cadence to who you become,” Priyanka told Oprah once in a conversation around her 40th birthday. 

“You find a different form of who you need to be, and neither is better or worse.”

Lesson #3: “Be all the things” 

“To really understand and accept that confidence is not something you always need. 

Put it in a backpack. Give it a break, put it in your purse, in your wallet, and let it chill. 

Feel insecure, feel scared, feel afraid, feel vulnerable. 

But when you need the confidence, and you walk into that room… you’ll have it. Because when it’s in the reserve, it’s so much more powerful because you’re allowing yourself to be all the things.”

I’ll leave you with this #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth note from our girl: 

“I truly believe that finding someone who’s in your corner is so important, whether it’s your sister, your parents, your husband, your best friend — whoever that person is.

Because when you talk about something that is making you feel sad and bogged down, it takes away the power of that thing. When you’re alone, it’s just you and your insecurity or whatever is weighing you down, and it feels so much larger than it probably is.

It’s always worked for me when I’ve found someone who I can talk to.” 
Find your people, and hold them close. We don’t have to do life *all* on our own. <3