All that I ever needed to succeed in life I learned as a kid from my four brothers!

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS!

My love affair with men, no doubt, was influenced by the love and admiration I developed for my four(4!) brothers – two older, two younger – and yours truly, right smack in the middle and all two years apart from one another. Is it a wonder I became a veritable Tomboy and, at 75.8 still claim the title? How lucky can this girl be?
I can truly say that I owe my success (both personally and certainly professionally) to the lessons my wonderful brothers taught me because I tackled (no pun intended!) every challenge that came along later in life putting into practice what I learned through playing sports and hanging out with my brothers. Since I had short hair like a boy and wore jeans and T-shirts just like them, most people thought my parents had five boys and that was ok with them. Both my parents were incredibly self-assured, confident and didn’t much care what other people thought.
The first thing I learned by playing baseball with my brothers was fair play: both teams would have a player put his (no girls!) hand on the bat, one at a time, and whosever hand reached the top would go to bat first. No arguments!
I learned that the team acknowledged each player’s strengths and weaknesses, always supporting not just each other but the best one – and “having his back.” Imagine women doing that! (I had one hell of a time in the corporate world with women on that one, but, fortunately, by then I’d aligned myself with “the boys” anyway because I knew how they thought and had their respect.
I learned about competition; respect for the top dog; straight talk – no manipulation of freakin’ tears.
I learned about saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
I learned to bottom line (that was a challenge for this one-day-to-be PR diva/maven whose gift of gab made her a “legend” in Santa Monica!) But I knew “the scoop” and certainly bottom lined it in the board room or when meeting with a male or a group of them. It was different when we went fishing and shared a beer or two; we blabbed “like girls,” they said!
I learned to fall, pick myself up, dust myself up, wipe the blood off the scraped knees (or any body part), grit my teeth and say, “Play ball!” I’d later cry by myself in the bathroom where no one could hear me. Hell, I took some whoppers, like the time I was a catcher and the pitcher smacked me right on the chest and I passed out – but not before seeing a constellation of stars!
These are just a few of the skills I picked up from my glorious, heroic brothers and there are many more – to share later, I hope.
Perhaps the best one of all has always been incredible sense of self-confidence, independence, self-reliance and ability to speak my mind – most diplomatically as I did for over 40 years as the PR pro – or otherwise, as the case may be. Now and then a man might come along and might need to be “reminded” this girl can take care of herself – and still remain the lady her parents eventually sent to Finishing School!)
I adore men. I understand them; I respect them. And, no, they are not perfect, but the logic of their minds appeals to me and makes it very easy for me to flash back to my days of blissful existence with my four brothers.
To this day, most of my friends are male because I feel more comfortable with them but I have a couple of girlfriends whom I enjoy tremendously – but they don’t fish!
God bless my brothers – all my brothers; blood or otherwise!