These last two weeks, on each Friday, we got to meet Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Karin Timpone respectively. Cheryl is the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Karin is the Global Marketing Officer for Marriott International (plus she’s a  Bryn Mawr alum!).

I attended multiple sessions with both but my favorite ones were generally the lunches. It’s just a lot more relaxed and conversation flows very freely.

Wyndham’s great catering only sweetens the deal.

Often literally, since we often get dessert.

(Not only does LILAC arrange for us to meet these phenomenal women at the top of their respective industries, it even pays for food. Win and win.)

Anyway, being able to listen to the stories that both women shared was a great opportunity. Not only does it help when you realize that these people who seem to be at the towering apexes of their careers are human just like you, it also gives us a little peek into the effort it took to get where they are now.

And that no matter how effortless or gilded their passage into their current positions might seem, in reality it was more like a duck in a pond.

Serenely gliding above water but madly paddling underneath.

Ultimately, I walked away from the table with the realization that one of the most important things we can do for our careers was to just show up. To not be super picky or stay stuck in the quicksand of indecision. And this was something that both of them mentioned, in one form or the other, to just choose something, anything. Even a job flipping burgers can teach you a lot, if you just let it.

Because anything is better than nothing.