Even though I wrote about GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman first after I attended the Orange County Business Journal‘s 15th annual Women In Business Awards, that wasn’t the main reason I was there.

Actually, I’m a little embarrassed to say, it had slipped my mind that Whitman would be the keynote speaker. I wrote about her first because I sensed news there and I was a little surprised how candid she was about the issues. She’s in the business now of raising money and creating an image, not necessarily making news (or worse, generating controversy). She even alluded to that in her speech, saying she’s prone to giving her handlers ulcers sometimes because she wants to talk more like an executive than a politician.

“Today in politics inaction is the preferred mode,” she said, adding that the strategy is to make it appear as if you’re busy without actually doing anything to upset the status quo. “Putting off decisions and the lack of leadership is why we find ourselves in this mess today.”

She couldn’t have picked a better audience for that line. Every one of the women in that audience, especially the nominees, are women of action. They are decisive and committed. They just don’t start from scratch. They first have to overcome the inherent obstacles in the last vestiges of patriarchy in our society.

I was there to cheer on two women in particular: Mona Shah and Greer Wylder, my good friend who writes our “Best Buys” column, which I’ve been editing for the past few years. I was so proud they were nominated with 157 other Orange County business women. Greer’s not just a taste-maker, she’s a kind, generous, charitable soul. Her decision to turn down a role on  “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and instead do a mission for the poor in Africa this summer illustrates the point far more eloquently than my words.

As for Mona, she has filled me with a burst of inspiration I hardly thought possible. And it came just in time. It’s no secret that the newspaper industry in general is suffering. You see the headlines every day. I feel like a steel worker in the ’70s with the walls of economic collapse falling in on me. The Daily Pilot has had to sacrifice like anyone else, though I’m told we’re in much better shape now. Please don’t worry, dear readers. We all still have our shoulders at the wheel, pushing as hard as we can and it’s showing. Still, it pains me when I hear complaints about why we didn’t cover this or that event. I wish I could be everywhere at once, but I can’t. Last fall, when Editor Tony Dodero left our company, is when I felt I had reached a nadir. Of all the great attributes Tony brought our company, chief among them was his ambassadorial spirit. He was quite literally the face of the paper oftentimes and I felt it was my duty to try to pick up that mantle. Let me tell you, it’s a heavy one. I did my best at first, but there’s so much work to be done in the office first.

And then I met Mona. If I’m a solar panel then she’s a nuclear power plant. I wish I had one-tenth of her energy. If you see me around town more often it’s largely because of her. The other night one loyal reader gave me more credit than I deserve for keeping the Pilot up to its traditionally high standards. Much as I’d like to accept that compliment humility commands me to acknowledge the long hours and sweat of many co-workers.

Mona, quite simply, is the most efficient public relations machine I’ve ever seen and she does it all with just sincerity, ethics and 110% effort.

Mona and Greer didn’t win, but they’re still winners. Many of the winners Thursday had been nominated for many years. It’s tough to win one of those suckers. The standards are very high. So, just like my beloved Cubs, there’s always next year, ladies.

Oh, and speaking of winners, a tip of the hat to Costa Mesa’s Renee Gabbard, a partner in the Paul Hastings law firm.

“I’m absolutely shocked and thrilled,” Gabbard told me after the awards presentation. She was sitting at Table 27 so her friends who were there with her joked that they usually gamble at a Table 27 in Vegas.

“So when I won I looked at them and said, ‘You brought me all the luck in the world,’ ” Gabbard said.

That’s a funny story, but luck has nothing to do with it with these successful women. It’s all hard work. And then some.

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