Women thrive on passion to fuel professional goals

Emma Reynolds may not always have achieved what she set out to do, but it never stopped her from trying. When she set up her first business at the age of 23, there were many sceptics.

"There were some people who didn't think it was a good idea, or came up with reasons why I shouldn't do it," she explains.

By the time she moved on to her next venture, a financial crisis was looming. She lost everything. "When I moved to Hong Kong to start the third business, people told me to learn from the recent events in London and not to do it," she says. "Now I have proved them wrong."

The co-founder and chief executive of e3Reloaded, a consultancy that specialises in employer branding and employee communications, is one of many women choosing passion over procrastination, stepping out with firm intentions - often against the odds.

For many, this passion keeps them climbing the ladder to success. It may mean ruffling a few feathers or breaking the mould. "There are many reasons I shouldn't be where I am today. I am not degree-educated, I am only 28 years old, and yet I have lived in three countries, started three businesses and work with some of the world's largest organisations," Reynolds says. "I have developed a healthy disregard for the impossible."

Likewise, Vivian Lau has found that it often pays to defy authority to pursue a passion. The chief executive of charity Junior Achievement Hong Kong recalls working in Australia and being informed by a mentor that she was a "triple minority" in her chosen field - being a petite Asian female in the predominantly white, male IT industry.

Her response was to work even harder. "By working three times as hard to defy my 'triple minority', my work in the field was recognised and I was headhunted to return to Hong Kong to lead the Greater China IT department of a multinational advertising firm," she says.

Many credit education with laying the groundwork for pursuing a passion. For Tisa Ho, executive director at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, it gave her a pragmatic outlook on her career path. "Being in a girls' school meant you developed the habit of dealing with stuff and not asking or expecting boys to help, and your individual identity or personality was pretty much in place by the time you had to deal with the opposite sex," she explains.

She believes her success is in the future, another byproduct of her education. "Perhaps that's also partly shaped by my education in which there was always so much to pursue, and no resting on laurels."

For Lau, education played a key role in shaping her success. "The sweetest spot of education was when I found the joy of learning in the [penultimate] year of my undergraduate degree," she explains.