Unapologetically Ambitious summary

You know that proverbial pie everyone talks about? Well, people usually want a bigger piece of it, right?

So when her mother got the smallest piece of real pie during family meals, young Shellye naturally thought it was unfair. After all, her mother took care of the family budget and ensured that everyone’s needs were met. Plus, she baked the pie in question!

If you’ve ever watched a romantic comedy, then you’re familiar with this story line: two people meet by chance and then adorably fumble along until realizing they’re meant for each other. But this doesn’t only happen in the movies – many people also find their partners this way off-screen.

For Shellye, however, the process was slightly different. There was no fumbling along when she met her husband, Scotty, in her junior year of college. She knew she wanted to marry young, and that she needed to find someone who would support her goals. Increasing the odds of this called for a very deliberate approach to dating. 

By her own admission – and from what we’ve learned in previous blinks – Shellye Archambeau is undoubtedly a type A personality. Such people are usually determined, hardworking, and highly ambitious – positive traits that helped Shellye define and pursue her goals.

But type A personalities also have negative traits, one being that they find it difficult to delegate. This trait was on full display when Shellye’s family moved into a newly built house. Despite being pregnant, Shellye did the landscaping, decorating, and everything else necessary to make the house a home. At this point, she received some advice that applied to both her homelife and her career. 

While learning to delegate and master work-life integration, Shellye still had her eyes fixed on landing a CEO position.

She’d joined IBM after graduating; her goal was to eventually lead the company. After learning that most of IBM’s CEOs had started in sales, gained management experience, and then become executives, Shellye planned to do the same – and she wanted to do it by 30. But as that age approached, her boss repeatedly insisted there weren’t any management opportunities.

Shellye’s decision to move around obstacles led her to Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. Tech was emerging as the next big thing, and everyone wanted in. Initially, her experience made finding a new role easy. She joined an internet service provider before later moving to a website company, where she became an executive vice president. Things were going well – until the stock market crashed. 

The website company shrank drastically, forcing Shellye to seek new opportunities. She felt ready to finally become a CEO, but the crash meant that Silicon Valley was full of people looking for work. Plus, as an African American woman, Shellye didn’t look like your typical tech CEO.