Life Lessons from Leading Ladies: Blair Waldorf, Meredith Grey & Elle Woods

The best lessons in my life haven’t always come from books, my passion and drive for a successful career and that ‘independent woman’ vibe we all love to preach about have very much been inspired by some of the nation’s favourite TV and film leading ladies. These are the very ladies that inspire me every single day, I can watch them over and over again and feel motivated to smash another day at the office for Embryo.

By the end of this blog, if you haven’t watched any of them, PLEASE add them to your list in lockdown. Grey’s Anatomy is 16 seasons in and still going strong, Shonda Rhimes you quite literally are outstanding (applause). 

Allow me to introduce you to Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf

Being a member of the elite’s Upper East Siders of Manhattan, Blair definitely has her fair share of fans and enemies. She is a fashion icon, outspoken, stubborn, strong-minded, and incredibly driven when it comes to cooking up a scheme to get what she wants. There are, however, a few things that we can learn from her bold yet brilliant personality:

1. Don’t wait for things to come to you, make them happen

Blair once said, “Destiny is for losers, it’s just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen instead of making them happen”. And I couldn’t agree more! Life isn’t about waiting for that sign to come, it’s about applying for that dream job, taking that out of hours training course, and making damn sure you do everything you can to get to where you want to be in life. So I will tell you this, set yourself goals, and do as much as you can until you reach them. Age is just a number so do not let the fear of that stop you from becoming the Blair Waldorf of your own life. 

      2. We all have self-control – use it 

Wise words from Miss Waldorf herself that resonated with me are this “We’re not servants to our emotions, we can control them, suppress them, stomp them out like bugs”.

In everyday life, self-control is so important to practice, whether that is with friends, family, or colleagues. Sometimes in our careers, we have to make really hard decisions which means emotions have to be taken out of the equation. Don’t get me wrong I believe it is good to show our emotion when needed, whether that is offering a friend or colleague support when they are in need of it or helping a client out when they are having a tough time. However, during those times where you have to think of the greater good or the long term positive that is most important, this is something that I often practice to help me do just that, and I never regret it. 

Drum roll, please… The talented Dr. Meredith Grey

Doctor Meredith Grey went from being a surgical intern to becoming the chief of general surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and boy has this woman been through a lot! Grey’s Anatomy is an emotional roller coaster and the best medical drama I have ever seen. (SPOILER ALERT) With the show currently airing its 16th season, over the years we’ve seen, the hospital taken hostage, explosions in the middle of operations, plane crashes, LVAD wires being cut, friends and family dying. Meredith Grey really has been through one hell of a ride. She has taught me many things throughout her medical career and whether you’re training to be a surgical doctor, teacher or a  Digital Marketing Executive, all of her lessons are worth knowing:

1.  Not trying is the biggest mistake you could ever make

“Knowing is better than wondering, waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beats the hell out of never trying” – Meredith Grey

Like Dr. Grey said, knowing is always better than wondering ‘what if’ and trying to imagine how your life would have been if you had really made the effort to study for that test, prepared for that interview, or created a brilliant SEO strategy for that competitive client. So if you can take one thing away from this blog that is always try, try, and try again. At least you will be able to say you did it and that’s more than some people can say!

     2. Never give up

“If there’s just one piece of advice I can give you, it’s this– when there’s something you really want, fight for it, don’t give up no matter how hopeless it seems.” – Meredith Grey

Not everything in life comes easy, you have to work really hard, get through a lot of mistakes and low points to get to where you want to be, unfortunately, that’s all part of the journey to success. Once you accept this, you have to keep powering through and never give up. Some of the greatest historic legends of today came from never giving up no matter how hopeless things seemed. If they can do it, we can too. 

Third and final, please welcome Miss Elle Woods

Elle Woods, dressed head to toe in pink, owner of pooch ‘Bruiser’, Delta Nu sorority sister and lawyer. When Elle Woods started out in college, she majored in fashion until her childhood sweetheart decided to break up with her due to wanting someone ‘smarter’ who could join him in his footsteps at law school. So what did Elle do? She proved everybody wrong, worked her pink high heels off, and got herself into Harvard law school to become a very successful lawyer.  Everyone took one look at her and thought it would be absolutely impossible for her to achieve this. 

What’s the lesson here? Intelligence comes in all shapes and sizes, so never judge a book by its cover. 

Being smart doesn’t have one definition, it appears in all different forms, so next time you’re recruiting for your latest team member, think of this as people can be full of surprises. 

I could have listed so many inspirational female character leads playing in T.V roles of today:

• Annalise Keating, criminal law professor and unbelievable criminal lawyer in another Shonda Rhimes special ‘how to get away with murder’.  

• Olivia Pope, the best political ‘fixer’ in all of D.C in T.V show ‘Scandal’. 

• And of course the brilliant Donna Paulson from ‘Suits’ which you can read about in my original blog that focuses on her in detail and the inspiration that she is.

So, now you have read all about my favourite career-driven, successful female characters, who are yours? As you can tell I’m a big Netflix fan and would love to hear all about them, get in touch today for a virtual coffee with me; organised, operations, control freak that likes to get things done.