My parents were both born and raised in the Depression. They instilled great values about integrity and the importance of hard work, and I've taken that with me to every job.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the foundational values of integrity and hard work instilled by parents during a difficult era.
Mary Barra reflects on how her parents, shaped by the hardships of the Great Depression, imparted essential values such as integrity and hard work. These principles have become guiding forces in her professional life, highlighting the long-lasting impact of parental influence on an individual's character and work ethic.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a graduation speech to inspire young graduates about the importance of hard work and values.
The biggest message I have for young women is, Don't start cutting off branches of your career tree unnecessarily early. Sometimes women say, I know I want to have a family or play in the local symphony, and they start pulling themselves out of their career path. You don't have to take yourself out of the running before you even start.
My definition of 'innovative' is providing value to the customer.
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.
Real luxury is having the time to read endless stories in bed with my children. And I get that all the time. I'm so blessed.
I barely saw my mother, and the mom I saw was often angry and unhappy. The mother I grew up with is not the mother I know now. It's not the mother she became after my father died, and that's been the greatest prize of my life.
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
[Motherhood is] the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It's huge and scary-it's an act of infinite optimism.
All my life, up until that moment, I'd had a warm, protective blanket wrapped around me, knitted of aunts and uncles, purled of first and second and third cousins, knot-tied with grandmas and grandpas and greats. That blanket had just dropped from my shoulders. I felt cold, lost and alone.
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