#25c – David Rubenstein’s Top 10 Chicken Soup for the Economy? Women in Business Get Your Game On

David Rubenstein, Co-founder Carlyle Group

• The US unemployment rate is currently 9.8%. It’s the highest in 36 years.
• Americans are unwilling to take risks or trust big companies. Young people are uncertain of  their career paths.
• After World War II, the US constituted were 48 percent of the world’s GDP. Now we’re about 20 percent of the world’s GDP.

From the women’s perspective, here is a women’s factoid I tweeted the other day to add to the bad news:

@ChiefHotMomma: Economy &Women: 19% of senior exec women lost jobs vs 6% of men http://ad.vu/m7j8 [Huff Post Blog / Catalyst Rsch]

The bleak picture painted by David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group has a silver lining. As Bill George said earlier: Is there an opportunity for you during this crisis? Women and their families are thinking more entrepreneurially during this slow economic time (see links below). Is this the time you’ll look back on as your most brilliant because – when forced – you rose to the occasion, sold the big deal, came up with the new idea, or took a risk you thought you never could? If this is, or could be you, David Rubenstein had some great, quick lessons learned: