Told She Couldn't Be a Pilot Because She Was a Woman, with Deborah Crowe | Ways to Wealth 168

This week on the Ways to Wealth Podcast, Charlie speaks to Deborah Crowe, a serial entrepreneur, engineer, and circular economy leader whose career has taken more turns than almost anyone we've had on the show.Deborah grew up on a sheep and grain farm in Southland, the oldest of four in a family with 55 first cousins. She wanted to be an astronaut, until the Air Force told her women weren't allowed to be pilots. So, she became an electrical engineer instead, then rebranded into IT when she realised the people there earned three times what she did. In 2000 she co-founded Run the Red, the company that taught New Zealand how to text, and sold it to Pushpay in 2014.That exit is where her story gets interesting. Somewhere in her mid-40s, the question stopped being "what can I build?" and became "what's the point?" She threw herself into purpose-driven work, decarbonising the textile industry, commercialising climate science, trying to do less harm and more good. And it nearly broke her.In one of the most honest conversations we've recorded, Deborah talks about swinging from being all head to all heart, the burnout that came from never setting boundaries, and what it actually took to put herself back at the centre of her own life. She also shares an observation about why so many businesses survive far longer than they should, and what New Zealand keeps getting wrong about where it puts its money.Watch every episode of the Ways to Wealth Podcast here: www.eccuity.com/podcastsLearn more about Deborah here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahcrowe/#waystowealth #entrepreneurship #circulareconomy #burnout #purpose #nzbusiness #founders #exits #sustainability #leadership #womeninbusiness #impactinvesting #wellbeing #wealthbuilding