Sticking On: A Survival Playbook for Ambitious Women to Stay, Rise, and Win
Sticking On is more than a career guide. It is a survival playbook for ambitious women who want to thrive in their careers without losing themselves in the process. Drawing from the author’s journey as a global tech founder, corporate leader, and working mother, the book blends hard-earned lessons with practical frameworks that work in the real world. Here is our conversation with the author about the heart of the book, the ideas that power it, and the personal experiences that shaped every chapter.
1. The Stick On Framework sounds like a powerful tool for women navigating their careers. Can you walk us through the core principles of this framework and share a specific example of how it helped you or someone else stay, rise, and win in their professional journey?
The Stick On Framework has three pillars: STAY (know why you belong), RISE (play smarter, not just harder), and WIN (use a framework that works). It is designed for the 99 percent of women who want thriving careers without burning out. For example, one mid-career woman I mentored was ready to quit after being overlooked for a promotion. Using STAY, she reframed her value in the organization. With RISE, she learned to make her achievements visible. With WIN, she mapped her path to a leadership role. Within a year, she not only got the promotion but also redesigned her role to better align with her strengths.
2. As a global tech founder and working mother, how did your personal experiences shape the advice in the book, particularly in addressing challenges like burnout and work-life balance?
I have lived the chaos I write about, managing million-dollar projects, scaling a tech company, and raising two kids while working across time zones. Burnout was not a theory for me. It was real and it was costly. That is why my advice focuses on deliberate trade-offs, protecting your energy, and designing a career you can sustain over decades. In Sticking On, I share practical strategies for doing high-impact work while keeping your sanity intact. If you burn out, you cannot stick on.
3. The book emphasizes defining success on your own terms. How do you personally define success, and how do you guide readers to discover their own definition?
For me, success means freedom, to choose the work I do, the people I work with, and the life I live. It is not a title, a corner office, or a LinkedIn headline. It is the ability to say no without fear. In the book, I walk readers through exercises and reflection prompts to strip away what they have been told to want and uncover what truly matters to them. Once you define your own scoreboard, it becomes easier to make decisions that keep you aligned and fulfilled.
4. With three decades of experience, what is one lesson you wish you had learned earlier in your career, and how do you incorporate that into Sticking On to help other women avoid similar pitfalls?
I wish I had learned that performance alone does not guarantee recognition. Perception and positioning matter just as much. Early in my career, I assumed good work would speak for itself. I learned the hard way that it often whispers. Sticking On has entire chapters on building influence, leveraging perception, and finding your X Factor because the people who rise fastest are not just doing the work, they are shaping how the work is seen.
5. What was the most challenging part of writing Sticking On, and how did you overcome it to create a guide that is both honest and empowering?
The hardest part was deciding how honest to be. I did not want to write a sugar-coated “you can have it all” book, but I also did not want to discourage readers with too much bluntness. I solved this by anchoring each chapter in a real story, including the messy, unfiltered truth; and then pairing it with a practical framework readers can use right away. The result is a book that feels like a conversation with someone who has been there, not a lecture from a podium.
At its heart, Sticking On is about resilience with strategy. It is for every woman who has been told to lean in, step back, or settle down. My hope is that readers walk away not only with inspiration but also with a set of tools they can put into action immediately. Because success is not about never facing obstacles. It is about sticking on through them and coming out stronger on the other side.
Available on:
Amazon.in | WFP Store
From the Editor's desk
Vanshika Gupta