My two cents. Worth at least a nickel (I hope).
According to Wikipedia, “my two cents” is a United States idiomatic expression taken from the original English expression ‘to put in my two pennies worth’ or ‘my two-penn’orth’. It is used to preface the tentative stating of one’s opinion, because by deprecating the opinion to follow (suggesting its value is only two cents), the user of the phrase hopes to lessen the impact of a possibly contentious statement, showing politeness and humility.
How interesting! (But, of course, that’s just my two cents.)
As I begin sharing personal and professional comments via this Creatis blog, I certainly hope you find my opinions and content useful. Those that know me well might suggest that I am not one typically afraid of sharing my point of view. But what I have shared in the past was often more carefully ‘managed’ then they might have realized.
What’s most interesting for me with this phrase is that many women in business today – especially women of my age group including me – were programmed from childhood to be careful about what we said. Books like Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman clearly point out the sad truth that many women today shy away from being contentious, and thus preface remarks with deprecating statements. We don’t raise our hands and speak up because we are feel our opinions won’t be taken seriously. Or we work so hard to carefully craft what we have to say that by the time we are ready to speak, someone else has already jumped in with our idea!
So I am going to jump in and give you my opinions about marketing and my experiences in business – and I do hope you find the content of value. I’ll work hard to bring the most interesting of my ideas and lessons learned from my many years as a marketer and a woman in business, and may even try to be a little bit contentious along the way.
I’ll give you my two cents, which I do sincerely hope is worth at least a nickel!
