She’s Got Money, She’s Got Power – She Wants More!

By Douglas Page

The scene might be fictitious, but it’s a great idea: Read your rival’s book as George C. Scott, portraying U. S. Army Gen. George S. Patton Jr., bellows after defeating German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s forces in a North African battle in World War II.

That’s the reason anyone, men especially, should buy Lisa Carmen Wang’s book, The Bad Bitch Business Bible: 10 Commandments to Break Free of Good Girl Brainwashing and Take Charge of Your Body, Boundaries, and Bank Account. To survive in a world where men and women compete for jobs and venture funding, it’s imperative men are attuned to the advice women receive.

Plus, they could put Wang’s wisdom to work for their own cause, including their money.

While the book’s cover suggests pages packed with anger, it’s more attitude and, even then, hardly indignant.

A successful entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and a former champion gymnast, Wang critiques men – especially sexually predatory behavior – but that’s not her focus. She’s fixated on liberating women from the attitudes and behaviors of earlier women, ones that displayed little self-confidence or thought they’d never succeed. 

“The Bad Bitch is the woman you could be if you showed up as your most powerful and authentic self,” she writes. “It’s the version of you that appears when you’ve let go of unnecessary fears and feel free to speak your truth and pursue your greatest dreams.

“The Bad Bitch is courageous, passionate, and abundant, exuding the grace and magnanimity in all truly powerful women,” she adds.

The “good girl,” the one Wang wants to kill off, thinks she’s not pretty enough, skinny enough, smart enough, brave enough or experienced enough, which produces an inferiority complex making her a flunky willing to grovel and settle for far less than she deserves.

She suggests that to gain power and overcome a bad day, women implement metacognition – a means of creating distance from emotions and environment – by talking about themselves in the third person. 

“For example, instead of saying, ‘The (potential) investors shit on my presentation, and now I’ll never get funded,’ you might say, ‘Lea pitched her new startup. While she didn’t get funding, she received helpful feedback that she’ll incorporate for her next pitch.’”

Wang also does what might surprise many:  She takes on the issue of shaming, showing whether it’s directed at men or women, the results are never positive.

“Society tells men that they don’t have enough,” she writes. 

As a result, she writes, men “do the exact opposite of what women do – they physically expand,” accumulating money, titles, property and “arm candy” to show the world “they are, in fact, enough.”

Unfortunately, she says, such behavior is rewarded while women’s self-minimizing behavior is punished.

“Our patriarchal society literally profits off making women feel insecure, ugly, fat, and old,” she writes, adding statistics saying that nearly all women are unhappy with their bodies.

And there’s no reason for them to feel this way because, Wang writes, they’re already in the driver’s seat: 

·      Controlling 85% of consumer spending and influencing 70% of household financial decisions.

·      Earning 60% of undergraduate and graduate degrees.

·      Being the primary breadwinner in 40% of U.S. households.

Wangs also notes women are 51% of the population, a powerful, economic force driving innovation and yet only receive 2% of venture capital funding, providing a competitive advantage men don’t see.

“At the Bad Bitch Empire (a venture fund created by Wang), we see this disconnect as an incredible opportunity,” she writes. “We recognize the collective financial and social power women have in determining the types of companies that will succeed in the future.”

The book would be better had the author interviewed women in top positions to learn their suggestions on what it takes to be accomplished and ways to manage life in and out of work. Some of those women could include Arianna Huffington; Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments; Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of META; Oprah Winfrey; Meg Whitman; Serena Williams; Taylor Swift; Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors; Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup; and Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS.

Wang states her case powerfully, making her book worthwhile not only for women – but also for men!

Douglas Page is reachable at dpage@sandiegometro.com

Publishing Information:

Lisa Carmen Wang

The Bad Bitch Business Bible: 10 Commandments to Break Free of Good Girl Brainwashing and Take Charge of Your Body, Boundaries, and Bank Account

Harper Business, 2023, 207 pages

$32.00 Hardcover