Yasmin Elisabeth Hussain joined BMMI in October 2005. Now over 10 years later, Yasmin is the AVP of Corporate Communications & CSR.

“If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.” - Melinda Gates 

Over ten years ago, I sat in BMMI Sitra waiting to be interviewed for a Corporate Comms Executive vacancy. I was nervous and scared. I had just resigned from my first job at an events management company where I worked as a Project Assistant for three years. For various reasons, I decided it was not the company for me, I knew I had bigger aspirations so I took a risk and resigned with no backup plan.

It took three interviews to get the BMMI job, one with Claire Pollard, the Corporate Comms Manager at the time, one with Gordon Boyle, our President and a final one with the HR team.

Claire and Gordon were my “someone” who helped start me in the right direction to climbing the conventional corporate ladder. How did I get so lucky? That’s what I always believed. My success was based on luck. Being in the right place at the right time. Luck maybe had a little to do with it at times but now looking back, it was a combination of love for the job, hard work and resolve. Luck also favours the prepared!

I also have to recognise the support of male mentors and colleagues who recognize and value talent.

In retrospect, the most important advice I can share with you is, you are responsible for your success and you are the driver of your career. In all the success stories I have heard or read, this is true for many successful women and men. You need to take ownership of your ambitions and development.

A few tips for success:

• You need to surround yourself with people who lift you up, not bring you down.
• If you want something, ask for it. That takes courage.
• Stand up for your principles and fight for what’s right and fair.
• Work hard and exceed expectations whenever you can.
• Have an insatiable curiosity. With the digital age and speed of change, we have to be curious and learn to adapt and change.

You deserve success and it’s yours for the taking. To see so many BMMI women on the rise, I know it’s only up from here.