Babysitter or Boss: 3 Victory Lessons From Olivia Pope

1. Make Them Miss You

“Where’s the Black Lady? The one in charge.” The world comes to a stop when Olivia Pope is missing! Pope describes herself as one of “the most powerful assets in the world”.  She then explains that if a person owned Olivia Pope, they own the President.  They become the most powerful person in the world.  “DO YOU WANT TO BE A BABYSITTER OR DO YOU WANT TO BE A BOSS?”


Make the world stop! Do something meaningful.  There are people that have ‘Olivia Pope’—essential resources—that they can use to achieve their goals yet they refuse to acknowledge this fact and would much rather continue to make excuses.  You can continue to sit or you can decide to soar.  It is up to you.



2. If It Is Broken, Fix It

Olivia Pope is a fixer.  Whether she is in the White House or in lockup, Olivia is constantly attempting to find solutions.  Olivia is being held against her will.  At one point we think that she has given up hope but then she handles her problem like a gladiator in a suit!  She convinces Ian that she can be sold on the black market and ultimately make him more powerful.  Although this leads Olivia to miss her rescue team, for Olivia Pope, more problems simply means more solutions!


Many of us dwell on problems prior to attempting to solve them.  This causes the problem to become worst.  Eventually, you will start avoiding the issue.  Every time that you are reminded of the problem, you will do anything that you can to continue to ignore it.  Finally, the problem becomes disastrous and you are forced to face it.  You ultimately end up handling a problem that has caused more stress than it should have.  If you had handled the problem like a BOSS from the beginning, you would not have had to babysit the problem for such a long period of time.

3. Know Your Worth

Olivia cannot handle the conditions in lockup.  She demands beef stew and an orange Creamsicle for desert.  She then explains that she would rather not have blue raspberry or lime because she grew up on the orange ones.  Olivia demands Ian to shoot her after her meal because she knows that she is far too valuable to be in a jail cell…she would rather be dead.


When you understand your value you simply do not settle for less.  Olivia is not accustomed to situations where she has to describe her value; instead her work usually speaks for itself.  You should not have to explain how valuable you are instead your work should speak for itself.  If you are being taken for granted, it might be time to walk away.  When you settle for less you devalue yourself.  Understand what you deserve and remember “You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop and what you reinforce” (Tony Gaskins).

-Victory