Ever since I was a child, I've been looking to understand the inner workings of life, to see through the veneer of surroundings and circumstances.
Since I was born in the Soviet Union, I learned early on that what you see is not always what you get. That there are deeper truths behind everything. Despite the official anti-religious party line, I insisted on connecting in every way I could to our Jewish heritage. Spending the summers in the Jewish village of my grandfather, I'd pick up words in Yiddish, exchanged by his friends.
It was also during these summers that I "worked" in my grandfather's market store. Watching him do business despite the Communist ban on private commerce, I inherited his approach to leveraging even the most complicated situations. Although officially he ran a government second-hand store, it was here that people came to sell and buy valuable, hard-to-get things: hand-crafted clothes, estate jewelry, antiques, and items bought abroad. Dozens of families made a living with my grandfather's help. This became a lifelong lesson in finding treasures where nobody thought to look. Calculating with an abacus (google it), customer service, and keeping one's mouth shut were other lessons imparted by my grandfather.
After spending my teen years in the United States, I came to Israel for college. Spending my formative years on 3 different continents honed my ability to adapt to cultures, yet maintain an outside perspective. In my coaching and consulting work, I translate these skills into empathy and non-judgmental listening, combined with critical analysis of situations.
All of these early experiences translated into a lifelong quest for the principles of a proactive, meaningful, eyes-wide-open life. I have found these by discovering the improbable yet undeniable link between the teachings of Chassidic masters and the latest research in human and organizational psychology. Both of these schools of thought and the connections between them accompany me as I coach women, consult companies, and teach Torah.
Today it is my greatest joy to share what I have learned with other growth-oriented women like you.
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