5 Toxic Career Myths Women Should Ignore

Bonnie Hammer shares key insights from 15 Lies Women Are Told at Work: …And the Truth We Need to Succeed.

There’s a lot of bad career advice out there, and even some outright lies. For hard-earned honesty from a person who fought her way to the top, check out these ideas from the new book 15 Lies Women Are Told at Work: …And the Truth We Need to Succeed by Bonnie Hammer. Bonnie rose from an entry-level job as a production assistant to become the Vice Chair of NBCUniversal. The Hollywood Reporter has called her “the most powerful woman in entertainment.” Here she is to share 5 of her key insights.

1. Don’t follow your dreams—follow the opportunities.

When it comes to careers, “follow your dreams” can be nightmare advice. For starters, we usually discover our dreams long before we enter the workplace: through praise from parents, career day at school, a teenage hobby, or a favorite college course. Chances are, we have little idea what a career in that dream industry or field looks like—or whether we’d like doing it.

Just like we can’t be what we can’t see, we can’t dream what we don’t know. Our dreams have an infinite number of blind spots, made up of every industry we haven’t yet worked in, every company we haven’t yet encountered, and every job we haven’t tried doing ourselves—not to mention all the industries, companies, and jobs that don’t yet exist. The possibilities and blind spots are truly endless.