If you want to be CEO, go for it! Dame Helena Morrissey's career advice for young women

Dame Helena Morrissey honoured us with her first ever TED-style talk about her new book, A good time to be a girl, at the 30% Club cross-company mentoring programme 'midway' event for 500 of our mentors and mentees last week.

Here are Dame Helena's top tips for young women pursuing a career in business.

1. Leap before you look. We tend to hold ourselves back, analyse and worry. Just go for it.

2. Think big, start small, but start now.  Don't let the fear of what might go wrong stop you from trying. That's the motto that drove the 30% Club. We didn’t have all the answers. We didn’t have a map,  so we had to write one ourselves. 

3. Play to your strengths, work your differences.

4. Act confidently. Most people don’t feel confident; some are just better at faking it than others. Watch the TED Talk by Amy Cuddy on Power Poses.

5. Your career is a labyrinth not a ladder. No career goes in a straight line. There will be hurdles and bumps and sideways moves. If you have a setback, don’t take it personally.

6. Get a mentor, or two! Find allies you can talk to when the going gets tough.

7. Help others where you can - and pay it forward. Maintain perspective. We must remember the real hardships faced by women around the world, including in our own country with FGM and trafficking.

8. If you want to be a CEO, go for it! Do it in your own authentic way.

9. Remember there is no single ‘right’ path. People always ask me, 'When’s the right time to have children?' 'What’s the right work/life balance?' There’s no right answer. It’s your life. Think about what makes you happy.

10. It's a good time to be a girl - but it’s not all sorted just yet. You can make further progress.

This is your time.