Min Chan

Since I was a child, I had one goal – making a living. When I was five, my family moved from China’s Fujian Province to New York City; we were six illegal immigrants in a one-bedroom apartment and we all had to earn our keep. At age ten, my mother taught me to use a sewing machine so I could work after school in her Chinatown sweatshop. I hated the fact that all my friends were outside having fun, but now I realise that the work ethic I developed helped me finish both college and law school.

I had never even considered going to college, since my father had planned out my life for me – to work in the factory and marry a nice Chinese restaurant-owner.  But my last year of high school, he was killed in a car accident, and I knew I had to leave New York. The only affordable school was a SUNY (State University of New York) and I went as far away as I could. It was at SUNY Buffalo I met Nancy. She represented everything that I wanted to become, and I looked up to her for guidance.  Nancy is free spirited.  She writes beautifully and she does what she loves.  Whenever I felt that I couldn’t become an independent person, I remembered Nancy and I found the strength to charge forward. Before I was 30, I had graduated from law school, taught online legal research, and co-authored a book on roaming the virtual law library, as well as owning my own restaurant and luxury clothing shop. However, I was manically busy, neglecting my personal life and feeling unfulfilled. Not anymore. Now I spend more time with my mother in China, do yoga and meditation, and I am working as a Director of Business Development for a foreign information services company. More importantly, I make time for my friends – a simple life is a good life. When I think of Nancy, I always imagine all the great adventures she has and the impact she makes as she travels the world. She continues to be my inspiration and gives me the strength to become myself.  Nancy remains one of my biggest heroines.  

Nancy Pellegrini

I had a long list of fantasy careers, such as vet, runner, actress, singer, professor – anything, as long as I could travel. But how to start? I waited tables in London, sold sportswear in Dublin, taught English in Seoul, but it was in Beijing, China where I found a metaphorical home, and far too many fascinating job opportunities. For the past three years I’ve been covering the theatre, dance and classical music scene for Time Out Beijing and freelancing articles to magazines and papers abroad. I also do directing work for Beijing Playhouse community theatre company, teach English part time, attempt to study Chinese, volunteer at the Beijing Zoo, and am the only American tour guide in North Korea.

Min Chan and I were both Political Science majors at UB, working on a Model EU project about what would later become the Euro (although not because of us). She was just starting to emerge from herself, asking me about travelling, her career and her future, telling me I inspired her and recalling advice I didn’t remember giving. Min was someone I regretted losing touch with after university, but before email and Facebook, it was harder to stay connected. She found me in China, spread dangerously thin with no life outside of work. I was doing what I wanted, yes, but I was also dismissing myself as a dilettante/flake who couldn’t focus on anything. As a beginner in a fairly academic field (arts writing), I spent all my time struggling to catch up, but at the same time, couldn’t abandon any of my other projects. This time it was Min who inspired me. She taught me to take myself seriously, to realise I was a professional, and to understand that what I did had value, telling me that if I didn’t respect my work, no one else would either. Min is the “grownup” I have always wanted to be; not only has she achieved unbelievable things, but she is clear, rational, confident and kind. She knows what she wants, but she never strays too far from her heart.  It was Min’s idea to start “The World’s Most Successful Women”, because we all need inspiration, and there are too many incredible women out there whose stories never get told. We hope this site will inspire girls and women everywhere to do amazing things, and be as successful as they want to be.