Valerie Morris stresses the importance of mentoring CAIRO: You must reach back in order to move forward, is advice Valerie Morris first heard from her mother at an early age. In order to do well for yourself, you must do it for other people, she had told her. Fighting back tears as she remembers her mother, who passed away three years ago, Morris explains how this piece of advice has affected her life and career. From my early life, I mentored without knowing it. Morris, CNN financial correspondent, says that throughout her 35-year-long career, mentoring has always been part of her life. Role model to me is someone that people see and say I d like to be just like her. That s fine, she says, noting that it s more important for her to be a mentor than to be a role model. Because a role model doesn t necessarily have to do anything, they could just be . A role model is maybe someone you never met, you never know. You don t have an opportunity to talk back and forth. I prefer to be known as a mentor than a role model, she notes. As a mentor, she adds, she talks with young people interested in the same career, guides them and helps them so they can reach a higher level. If one of her protégées has an interview, she offers her expertise even if it is in the form of simple but effective advice. Remember, say the job you want to do. Remember, be on time. Remember, dress appropriately, she might say. Mentorship, for Morris, is more of a sister-sister relationship than a mother-daughter s. During one of the sessions she moderated at the Global Summit for Women, held in Cairo last week, she explained that mentoring can be used as a form of channeling negative energy into a positive, constructive attitude. When one of the summit participants noted how some women in the workplace fight each other instead of providing support, Morris responded that the best way to fight this negativity, both on the personal and professional level, is to turn it into positive energy. This energy can be channeled in the form of mentoring, she explained. Morris s efforts during the summit were highly appreciated. Many noticed the way in which she managed to moderate the sessions with the largest number of attendees, about 1,000, allowing as many participants as possible to address the panelists. Her efforts in keeping the topics of discussion interesting and relevant to the original theme did not go unnoticed; Summit President Irene Natividad personally thanked her for moderating the two sessions and asked the hall, packed with about 1,000 participants, to applaud her. Morris, however, had already left. Considering the summit s business theme, it was no surprise that Morris was invited to participate. She is a correspondent for CNN Business News, the division of CNN Worldwide that produces business news for CNN/U.S., CNN International, Headline News, CNN Airport Network, CNNRadio and CNN/Money.com. She anchors Headline News personal finance segment Smart Assets, addressing issues pertaining to making sound financial planning decisions. She previously co-anchored CNNfn s The FlipSide. What I do as a personal financial reporter and business anchorperson for CNN and this summit, which attempts to create opportunities for businesses owned by women, is a perfect fit, she explains. I believe so strongly in the fact every person needs to have their own financial identity, she adds. It s very important that women all over the world be educated with financial literacy that they understand. Not a financial expert herself (she started in pre-med school and ended with a bachelor s degree in journalism from San Jose State University in California and a master s degree in broadcast journalism from Columbia University) Morris approached the financial field as a journalist. As a journalist I must always be curious . I can ask questions about anything because then I learn. Over the 10 years that I ve been doing it, I ve become now more of a specialist on financial planning and how you do it, she says. With a special interest in women developing their own financial identity, something that was highlighted throughout the summit, she also points to civil rights. I think that most important things happen simultaneously, she says. Sometimes, we have to do both things at the same time and that is the reason why women can multi task. Financial stability and civil rights can t be acquired separately or one before the other, she says. I do believe that the civil rights of women, the business rights of women all come together. But in the process, she continues, cultural differences and generation gaps should be considered. She explains the differences in aspirations of women from different cultures and calls upon all to support these aspirations, regardless of disagreements over their form. In order to have success, we don t have to have every single woman saying, yes, we ll walk in this way, she notes. There is nothing wrong with women moving in different directions as long as they are moving forwards, she adds. I think that women in this region are doing amazing things, she continues. I think that women from other parts of the world need to understand that there are some cultural and traditional things that they may not understand . As global sisters we need to cooperate. The same happens with people from different generations, she adds. My 32-year-old daughter says of her 15-year-old cousin, Oh, my goodness; she is such an activist. And there is only a 15-year difference. My daughter is an activist, even more than I am, Morris says. Each generation takes a step closer to the ultimate goal, she says.Her background couldn t be a better example. As an African-American and Native-American, Morris says that what she has achieved could have never been possible or even comprehensible to her mother or grandmother. She has managed to become one of CNN s familiar faces, been the winner of three California Emmys (for breaking news events and special reports) and was awarded the Black Woman of the Year Award, to name just a few of her achievements.
