Instead of pinning your hopes for the future on a pipe dream or two, Shonda advises action over everything. As it turns out, she never envisioned herself as a TV writer, but was actually following in the footsteps of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. “You just have to keep seizing the next opportunity… It doesn’t have to fit your vision of the perfect job or the perfect life.”
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Drawing inspiration from 'Grey’s Anatomy' character Cristina Yang, a woman who found her happiness by refusing to settle, Shonda’s appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' came with one major caveat: that the segment be pre-taped. “I kept all my pieces,” she says. “[Saying] yes felt like the sun.”
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If something doesn’t feel right, just say so. Shonda first learned to assert herself professionally during the screening process for the 'Grey’s Anatomy' role of Cristina Yang and that, she says, was the moment she truly began steering the ship.
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