Engineer, innovator, philanthropist, entrepreneur, sports lover, introvert and woman of influence among many other things, Gerringong’s Kimberley Abbott shared openly with us her insights on business and pleasure, failure and success and life and love on her way to her next exciting adventure in the UK. Oh and did we mention she’s just 26?

Dayle: Tell me about your background?

Kimberley: I grew up in Gerringong and went to Gerringong Primary School and then Kiama High School. I am the middle child of three girls, and all of us were raised playing sports.

Growing up I was always quite creative, and often used to say I wanted to be an artist or a graphic designer… but as I got older I realised I loved science and veered towards engineering. I think right now if I asked my eight-year-old self what she is most disappointed about it would be that I didn't become an artist! But I still regularly sketch and draw as a hobby and an outlet from the brain-intensive work.

D: Tell me about what happened after high school, about your studies and career path? What made you choose this?

K: I was a studious kid, actually I was pretty much a nerd. But I also had that unavoidable Aussie passion for sport. I played in every sports team you could imagine. I played hockey, touch football and cricket all at state levels, captaining the U/17 and U/19 country cricket team.

So when I was in my senior years it became a question of what I was going to do when I finished school, and what direction I would follow. People told me I should try engineering, and I was somewhat begrudgingly sent off to an engineering summer school, to see what engineering is was all about. And it blew my mind I realised that was what I wanted to do. And I realised being an engineer places you in a unique position where you can truly make a difference in the world.

So in 2008, when I started at University of Wollongong, studying a bachelor of engineering, and a bachelor of medical science, I learnt about hard work. Fast. I was studying with the intent to become a biomedical engineer, and ended up doing my student internship for Cochlear and did my final year thesis where I was helping develop the world’s most advanced artificial heart.

D: Tell me about Yes WE (women engineers) Can! and why you started this? 

K: During the first few years, or few days, at uni I did notice something. I noticed there were 198 students majoring in mechanical engineering and there were only five girls. Five. And I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. Because from what I knew there was nothing about engineering that made it only for boys.

I met with the dean of engineering and we came up with a plan. With four of my fellow engineering girls we started our very own girls in engineering program ‘Yes WE Can!’ to try to encourage more girls into engineering. Engineers quite literally design and build the world. 

After that initial year, Yes WE Can! continued, with each year’s female engineering students running the program as part of their Engineering Management 101 course (in lieu of a major assignment). It continued to run for a number of years, expanding to rural areas such as Dubbo, and I think the program has been integrated now into the other STEM initiatives UOW runs such as Girls in Engineering Camp.

D: How did you come to visit India? Can you tell me about the idea behind Roka and what happened? 

K: While completing my thesis at 22, designing the world’s most advanced artificial heart, the university offered me a grant to go and volunteer for one month in India with the 40k Foundation Australia. The 40K Foundation is an innovative foundation which establishes tech-based education pods to educate disadvantaged kids in rural India. I jumped at the chance to be a part of this. I went to India with the idea that just maybe I could change these kids’ lives - I never imagined they would change mine.

During my time in India I was working in the Bangalore quarries and it was here I met Rani. Rani had lived in this quarry for 40 years. She was born there, she works there, and her daughter and family live there too.  Her family live in a tiny hut, made from cow dung and reeds, and they have no electricity or running water. Rani, along with the others in the village work 12 hours a day, six days a week, breaking granite by hand with some chisels and a hammer. And they earn $1 a day.

So through 40K I took on a challenge, along with a nursing student, to help the women of these quarries, because I realised that if you empower a woman, you empower a family, when families thrive so do whole villages, and when villages thrive so do whole countries. Simply by empowering women you can break the cycle of poverty. But I also knew that change had to be sustainable in order to be effective, and simply giving the women the money in my wallet ($100, the equivalent of a years wage) would not help them in the long term.

When they mine granite they cut large blocks which are used as bricks, the smaller rocks then get crushed for use as road base, and what’s left is a fine granite powder which is swept up off the quarry floor every week and trucked off to be dumped by a river as waste. Granite is one of the hardest stones there is. It is nearly impossible to carve, shape, or polish without quality tools. These women were untrained and illiterate and in isolated villages with no electricity, no water, and no way to use tools. So all we were left with was this dust, this waste. I thought, ‘What if we could use this 'waste' to create a product that could be made by the women, providing them with economic empowerment and personal pride using it as a vehicle to teach them the skills and knowledge they needed?’

We came up with Roka - a social enterprise where the 'waste' granite dust is mixed to make a clay which is coloured using natural Indian powders, then made into beads and pendants which are used to make jewellery and items to be sold. All of which can be made in their homes, in their village, with their families.

The idea was not to take these people out of the quarries, but rather create an economy within the village. The only problem with this enterprise was the profits made would be too much to give to the women! They could earn in two hours what their husbands earned in a week. I’m all for paying women well and closing the gender gap, but in rural India this is not a good thing. So we asked the women, ‘How else can we help you?’ Unanimously they said ‘Educate our children’, so we decided the excess profit would go to the 40K Foundation which was already running PLUS education centres in the village.

The women could now not only earn an income to help provide for their families, gaining respect and personal pride, but they were also subsidising their children’s education. Roka aims to use economic empowerment and education to break the poverty cycle in rural India. 

Check out Roka on Facebook here, Instagram here and on the web here.

D: What were the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

K: Starting a business, or any business, is definitely not easy. It took six months alone just to perfect the granite dust clay, and over a year of market research, product design, and production planning to even get close to getting a sustainable business model and supply chain. But I think the key thing is that I didn’t do any of this own my own. The whole time there was a brilliant Roka team of young people and students all working towards getting this running and successful.

Despite the effort required to develop a sound business model, the greatest and most significant challenges we ever faced were all about people, or more importantly culture.

At one point a woman quit and left Roka and we couldn’t figure out why. When we asked her she simply said it was because her husband asked her to. It was in that moment I realised we had completely neglected to take into account their culture. This is a culture where women don’t do anything without their husband’s permission, yet I had been so focused on involving the women that I had forgotten about involving, educating and informing the men so they would understand and support it. There are many stories like this that really emphasised the most important part of social change is ‘understanding the people’.

D: A lot of people would be interested in knowing how you get things done, how you get funding and people on board.

K: My best advice for business for anyone is ‘It’s not about what you do … it’s about why you do it’. This very statement alone will determine how hard you work on your project, how your passion rubs off on others, and your ability to engage and influence people to join your mission. 

D: Overall throughout your journey, what are some of the hardships or setbacks you've faced? 

K: Research indicates one of the key things holding women back in leadership, careers, and life is self-belief. Or as I call it ‘Imposter Syndrome’. It’s that feeling when something good happens or you succeed, you go ‘Phew, they didn’t think I was hopeless’. It was me thinking just because I didn’t have an MBA meant I couldn’t run a business. Self-doubt is what keeps us from feeling as intelligent and competent as everyone else knows we are.

For me, self-belief actually stemmed from realising the fact that someone else believing in you doesn’t rescue you from the project of believing in yourself, and if you are going to get rid of self-doubt you also have to get comfortable with failure. The thing is, we can choose courage; courage to try something new, change the world, tell someone we love them ... or we can choose comfort. But we can’t have both. Not at the same time.

Now people often look at all my success and think that I’ve never failed … to be honest, I think the people that succeed the most are probably the ones who have actually failed the most.

Because the reality is I’ve failed more times than I can count. I was learning to fail in Roka before it even started. It took six months and over a dozen different concoctions to even get the clay for Roka right. And when we thought we got it right, our first market test went terribly and people complained about broken pieces.

As an engineer, I was in charge of managing a $100 million tender opportunity at work that we lost. And believe it not, I nearly didn’t even graduate from high-school after I got suspended in year 12 for throwing a water bomb at the deputy principal (that’s perhaps a situation where I should have chosen comfort over courage!)

We often hear the question ‘What would you do if you knew you could not fail?’ but I think the better question is ‘What is worth doing even if you do fail?’ What would you change, what would you fix, what difference would you make? The point is we always focus on the win, when in reality, it is probably the willingness to fail that is more important in determining how well we succeed.

D: What are the most satisfying wins or successes have you had throughout your journey?

K: In 2013, at 23, I was named in the Westpac and Financial Review’s list of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence. I was invited to meet Prince William and Kate when they were in Australia, and have spoken at the UN. I was honoured; I don’t do what I do for the recognition or the accolades, because I’m just an ordinary person who tries, and sometimes fails, to do extraordinary things. I often say if people knew how hard I have to work to do what I do, it would not seem so wonderful at all.

But honestly, it’s never the awards or accolades that are the most satisfying – it’s always the little moments … like when I get an email from a young girl telling me she is studying to become an engineer because I inspired her or when, after speaking on a panel at the UN, two young girls from Ecuador gave me a bracelet because they believed I would make a difference in the world. Those are the things that make all the hours, tears and work worth it.

D: Do you have a guiding philosophy or structure that keeps you on track to achieving your goals?

K: Be kind, work hard, stay humble, smile often is pretty much my philosophy. Of all the things that have worked for me and contributed to my successes thus far, integrity is the biggest one.

In terms of keeping focused, ultimately I am driven by maximising my potential. But I also believe that action is the mother of success, and if not you, then who? If not now, then when?

D: What is something people might not realise about you?

K: I am very introverted. People think because a person can get up and talk in front of 350 people at a conference then they can’t be an introvert. The difference is that extroverts get their energy from being around people, where I, as an introvert, have energy drained around people. I feel most comfortable on my own, with just a few special people who I feel comfortable being open with. I used to think I’d have to change this if I were to become a successful leader, but one of the key things I’ve learnt is that ‘quiet leadership’ is not an oxymoron.

D: I'm curious - is there a significant other on the scene? If so, how do you manage your time with relationships?

K: Despite disappointment from my grandmother, I travel the world as a happily single woman. It is difficult to find time to go to pubs and bars so my chances of meeting someone are limited … but then having time to spend with them is equally hard! If the right person came along I would definitely compromise the time because in the end, all we crave as human beings is connection and relationships.

D: As you look to the future, what is ahead for you career-wise and in your personal development?

K: I am moving to the UK for three years on a company transfer with Thales. I will spend the next three years in the UK as their customer innovation business development manager, working on developing new market opportunities such as drones and cyber security.

In terms of social business, I have a new one in the pipeline I am developing: GenBuild. GenBuild is focused on unleashing the potential of young people to train them up to solve social problems through an entrepreneurial lens. It’s about creating businesses that profit society and solve some of the world’s most pressing issues by leveraging the skills, energy and knowledge of young people.

Long-term I have never had a five year plan or anything like that because I think it is best to leave yourself open to opportunities that come and to go wherever those opportunities take you. I love to learn, so for me, as long as I’m doing work that challenges me, teaches me and I am passionate about, then I will do anything.

Visit Kimberley’s website here for more information.