Taylor Swift.  Just 26 years old.  Millions in sales.  Ten-time Grammy winner.  Billboard Magazine’s Woman of the Year.  One of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.  The first artist since the Beatles, and the only female artist ever, to have six or more weeks at number one with three albums in a row.  And now, she is the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice.

She is talented, smart, well-spoken and savvy.  And someone I am comfortable with my young daughter, and frankly myself, looking up to.

When she won her award this week, she said, “As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there:  there are going to be people along the way who are going to try and undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.  But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get to where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there.  And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”

She got rejected before she got a record deal.  She fought to write songs as well as perform them. She never forgot her fans and their value on her journey.

No matter what you do in life, there will be people who try to bring you down.  No one is immune. But those people are defining themselves not you.

One of my favourite Taylor Swift quotes is, “You’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team.  I didn’t know it at fifteen.”

Yes you will.  Believe in yourself.  Follow your heart.  And you will get there.  Whether it’s earning a promotion, writing a book, travelling the world or winning a Grammy, focus on what you have to do to make it happen and be fearless in your quest.