A woman entrepreneur I know had a problem: Her travel company had plateaued at a respectable but small size. Then 9/11 took the bottom out from under her industry, leaving her largest contracts to dry up almost overnight.

She decided to get a bank loan to expand and had to leverage everything she owned. It was the risk of a lifetime, and it worked: Her business grew fourfold when the market rebounded, and she was instantly a market leader.

Her story struck me because it was so different from those of other female entrepreneurs I know--including myself.

A thought-provoking Harvard Business Review article asked, "Do women lack ambition?" It found that women pursue their goals only after they've satisfied their families' needs, they underestimate their abilities, and they're less likely to pursue lofty career goals.

A 2007 survey from the SBA also found that only 1.8 percent of U.S. women-owned businesses have revenue exceeding $1 million per year. They lag behind men in willingness to seek bank financing and are far less likely to receive venture capital.

Overall, female entrepreneurs seem less likely to take the big risks to get the big rewards.
Incremental risk equals exponential rewards. All entrepreneurs deal with risk--it starts the day you sign your first lease and hire your first employee. A small amount of leverage on that risk can have a major impact on your revenue by allowing you to afford a star hire or new storefront.

The women I know have ambition for their careers and for life. They often have a hard time seeing the end game and the clear path to getting there in the midst of so many other responsibilities. The stories of women who have built successful businesses and taken calculated risks to get there without sacrificing a fulfilling life need to be told. They are out there.

When we stop looking at ambition and risk as enemies of life balance and see them instead as ways to achieve balance, then perhaps we'll be ready to start thinking big.

Originally published in Entrepreneur's Women In Charge magazine 2008