In the last year (or maybe 2?) there has been a lot of buzz around Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, a book and perhaps movement now to inspire women to “participate in the board room.”

Lean Out: The Realities of Leaning In

Now, I’m all for promoting women founders and business women, so my plan to write a book called “Lean Out” doesn’t necessarily go against supporting women leaders, but rather provides a darker – yet more real – perspective on the journey as a woman in the engineering and entrepreneurial fields. Definitely weaving in some humor, after my third year through the toils of building iCreate, I’ve decided it’s time to be completely transparent on the true roller coaster of “leaning in” … perhaps inspiring some to just be content with “leaning out.”

So, as 2013 comes to a close, one of my [many] to-do’s for 2014 is to get to writing. My intent of documenting the wild ride is…

1) to add a humorous spin on so many stressful and tearful experiences (yes, I have stumbled through Disneyland dodging characters of the daily afternoon parade in a hysteria of tears after a pre-install meeting with park engineers);

2) to help other ambitious 20 and 30 somethings understand that many of the slaps in the face are neatly omitted from the Lean In books of the world;

3) therapy? Perhaps. In reality the coaster ride is still in its infancy so if I don’t get some of these happenings off my chest now, I may not survive the rest of the way.

This is an entirely different blog post than past ones, and follow-up posts will segway into melissapickering.com [purchased, just not yet live] in the new year, as iCreate also turns a corner into expanding its product line beyond animation and works more closely with the creation/maker movement happening in the informal K12 learning space.

But more on THAT transition in Thursday’s post! Stay tuned…