A few years ago, in-between traveling for business and working 80+ hours a week, Robin Belsky got stuck in an airport. She grabbed and read a small 183 paged book while killing time called, “What I Know Now—Letters To My Younger Self” by Ellyn Spragins. This book inspired Robin to create the Jewish Professional Women’s “Letters To My Younger Self” event. Robin loves mentoring new and younger employees—and this book spoke to her.
Her own female mentors were important to her successes, sharing the good and not so good lessons they learned while crawling and then climbing to the top. Because of her mentors’ stories, lessons and warnings, Robin pays-it-forward in the knowledge she shares with those that work alongside her. She prides herself on her own personal line she always shares with new coworkers, which is, “I will teach you all I have, then get out of your way and give you the wings to fly and to sore higher than me.”
Her first inception of the “Letters To My Younger Self” event was at a pharmaceutical executives conference in New York City. She and the sold-out audience in the large convention space loved the knowledge shared from the letters that were read. As a result of the event’s success and takeaways, Robin knew this idea was exactly what JPW needed, bringing the concept home to Baltimore.
For the past three years, she has helped to pick the panelists, created the questions and moderated the conversation in front of an audience of close to 100 women. Robin’s brainchild idea is now an annual JPW event which just completed its third run this past April, via Zoom this year. Three deeply talented and extraordinary women shared their letters and their journeys. Due to its popularity, The Associated chose to share these letters with a greater audience. Read on for excerpts from each of our letter writers.
