"The most valuable experiences I’ve had are those that were not typical, and often were not as easy as the linear path,” remarked Nina Godiwalla, author of Suits: A Woman on Wall Street that will be launched on February 28, 2011. This book portrays an ambitious woman’s fight to make her mark on Wall Street. Suits is a fetching story of "fathers and daughters, family pride and the pursuit of success and honor. This raw and unflinching memoir exposes the world of banking and finance from the perspective of a woman and outsider,” notes a summary of the 300-page hardback.
Describing her work as "a non-fiction literary memoir,” Godiwalla conveyed, "In addition to my Wall Street experience, the book focuses on the second generation experience — balancing the assimilation into American culture and the expectations of immigrant parents who are rooted in their own traditions. It also touches on how I was influenced by the Zoroastrian community in Houston.
"Growing up, my parents and community stressed the importance of economic success and prestige. So when I had the privilege to work on Wall Street, the epitome of the American dream, I was sold. It wasn’t something that people like me — second generation, middle-class immigrants from the Texas public school system — got the opportunity to do,” reminisced Godiwalla in Washington Post.
A full-time job as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley made her appreciate that there is life beyond money. As Godiwalla recalls, "The Zoroastrian community in New York reached out to welcome me… Initially investment banking amazed me the way a buffet does immigrants… Everything I experienced was foreign and evoked a sense of awe. It was as if someone had flung me into one of my grandmother’s soap operas, yet unlike her, I didn’t believe anyone really lived this lavishly… (On) a field trip to an executive’s summer mansion... I found myself looking at their children wondering what it was like to eat fresh baked chocolate-filled croissants for breakfast instead of Pop Tarts and spend weekends ordering banana splits with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream at country clubs that didn’t allow you to wear shorts…
"Over some time my fascination faded. The day we found out one of our colleagues was found dead in her apartment, several senior managers crowded in a conference room with fiery faces, annoyed that they were getting paid less than one of their counterparts whose salary was mentioned in the newspaper article. More talk went around about money than about our colleague’s death…Many examples like this wore me down. I’d grown up determined to prosper in this country but I had enough deep-rooted values to know money couldn’t be my only goal.
Nina Godiwalla: mission driven
"One of the most disconcerting qualities of corporate finance was that the culture tended to shun different backgrounds and ideas. The predominant attitude tended to be the faster you conform, the more likely you will succeed… But this corporate assimilation somehow felt more like a conversion of sorts… Having grown up in a tight, supportive family and Zoroastrian community, it was hard to let go of so much of who I was to fit into the cardboard cutout the banking culture often demanded. After a few years in banking, I made a switch for the better, carefully choosing to work for companies that were mission-driven rather than money-driven,” explained the Wharton MBA who has worked for several major Fortune 100 corporations.
After her stint as full-time analyst with Morgan Stanley, Godiwalla joined Oxygen Media where she helped create the company’s financial and business strategy. She later worked at the NYC Investment Fund as assistant director of investments. In 2006 Johnson and Johnson beckoned her as assistant product director where she helped launch e-commerce business for SPLENDA. She also led marketing and advertising strategies for the company and went on to manage Johnson and Johnson’s $ 165 million Tylenol upper respiratory brand. Two years later she moved from the client side of business to managing advertising accounts for GSD&M Idea City in Austin where she is leading the print, television and radio advertising campaigns for specialty retailer L. L. Bean.
Happy to be back in Austin, she believes, "The mindset of Austin people is inspiring. The culture is open-minded and enterprising, and people have a passion for what they do.” Austin also gives an opportunity to Godiwalla and her husband to reconnect to their alma mater, The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas in Austin from where they had both earned their bachelors in business administration. While a student at McCombs Godiwalla had helped organize one of the University’s first Intern Expos, was chairperson for the Undergraduate Business Council and served on the Dean’s Advisory Committee. After gaining some work experience she chose to do her masters in Liberal Arts at Dartmouth feeling she had missed out on that perspective as a business undergraduate. Thereafter she did her MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Founder of MindWorks, which teaches professionals meditation and stress management, Godiwalla’s future goals are to launch her own venture for which she is building a storehouse of experience in management, finance, marketing and advertising.
To promote her book Suits Godiwalla will be touring Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Hanover, Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. "I’ll be speaking at public venues such as book stores and the World Affairs Council, but if any of the Zoroastrian associations in these cities are interested in hosting a separate event they can contact me at suitsbook@gmail.com,” Godiwalla informed Parsiana.