“The Sky Is The Limit” – Shushma Datt
We are so happy to share with you our “Girlfriend of the Month” – the incredible Shushma Datt, legendary broadcaster and entrepreneur, founder of not one but two radio stations in the lower mainland, and an inspiration for women everywhere.
Q: How did you connect with Girlfriends / Aneet?
I met Aneet in Surrey, I aired a “women in focus” radio program on her salon. We connected because I could see her passion in her job and in her work, I saw this young woman who is a mother and a wife and trying to start her own business, and thought what a beautiful thing she is doing. Her perseverance is what made me look at this young woman and say we’ve got to tell her story!
Q: Who has been your greatest female influence?
My mother. When I got my order of British Columbia in 1992, people were congratulating me and I was saying “thank you I’m so humbled”, on our way home she looked at me and said “you’re not that big yet to be humbled, you still have a lot to do.” She kept my feet on the ground.
Q: What advice would you give another young woman chasing her dreams?
Believe in yourself and forge ahead. You have to believe and you have to dream. The universe is waiting for you to ask and it’s ready to deliver whatever you want. There is nothing in this world that you cannot do. But you have to be very determined. And if you’re determined, and you have the passion, and you can dream. The sky is the limit.
In 1972, I was looking for a job and the CBC and other radio stations would not hire me because I was a woman of colour, so I forged my own path and got into ethnic broadcasting. Whenever someone says “you can’t do something”, some people would just stop and take it at that, and some people would go ahead and do it anyway! And that’s what I did.