You can't be an entrepreneur AND a mother - can you?

I was speaking at Babson College the other night when a smart young woman told a terrifying tale. She was doing her MBA at Babson when one of her professors told her:" you can be an entrepreneur. Or you can be a mother. You can't be both; you have to choose. " She wondered what I thought.

Well the first thing I thought was: this guy should be retired by now! Never mind that he's narrow-minded; he's ill informed. I could have spent the rest of the evening listing the staggering entrepreneurial mothers I know who've built fantastic businesses WHILE raising their kids. Women like:
*** Doris Christopher. She started PAMPERED CHEF because she wanted to spend time with her kids and she couldn't find a job anywhere that would take her seriously AND let her see her kids as much as she wanted. So she started her own company. Warren Buffett did not buy Pampered Chef because it was a hobby but because Doris had built a big profitable business -- all the time she was raising her kids and spending time with her family.
*** Doreen Marks who started her company, OTIS TECHNOLOGY at the age of 16 and did NOT stop when she had two daughters. Of course her business now sells around the world and runs a state-of-the-art manufacturing center which also does many of the other things people tell you businesses can't afford: like offering full medical benefits, educational support and on site child care.
*** Karla Diehl who runs Edison Automation and has just joined the Inc 500 as one of the fastest growing businesses in America. Her company and her kids are about the same age. And she learned a lot about management from her kids (as every parent does.)
*** Eileen Fisher who learned from her kids that whether as a parent or a CEO, you have to keep evolving to respond to the needs around you that change all the time.

Come on Professor - do your homework!!