I taught it will be an entrepreneurial talk like all others, generic and boring. The only difference about it is that I actually conducted a detailed research on the speaker before the class, just so I can prepare the questions I need to hand up.
The moment I saw Andy in class, I knew the talk is going to be different. One thing is that he is not caucasian, he is a chinese. American born chinese most likely. I was hooked from the moment he mentioned to us that he was a chemical engineer back in Upenn and that he hated it. Yeah, I hate Chemical engineering but being on NOC has presented me a new perspective of this major and the opportunities it would provide me. There are really a lot of entrepreneurs who majored in Chemical engineering and a lot of industries hiring Chemical engineers. Loreal, for example, hires Chemical engineers for its R & D efforts, which I learnt from the Society of Women engineers dinner that I attended at the Inn at Penn.
So Andy was a normal person who joined the workforce after graduation. But what I really admire about him is that he had the courage to move out of his comfort zone, when he had a stable income, enjoyed his relaxing lifestyle and had all his needs met. He simply felt that he needed more challenges in his life and he just went out to strike out a business on his own. Somehow I share his sentiments, as I have never seen myself as someone who would stay on a single job all my life, unless I own that company. I would simply be bored stiff simply doing the same old stuff day in day out. When he mentioned about his enlightening experience when he visited an entrepreneur's home and realising that he want to live the life of a financially free entrepreneur, I realise that is my dream too. Deep inside my heart, I want to prove to myself that I can do something like that, and give my parents something to be proud of and a good life for their old age.
From the experiences which he shared with us during the talk, I learnt the importance of finding a niche for oneself and leveraging on the strengths she has to make meaningful changes to her life and in what she does. I had no idea what my strengths back when I began college but I have a better idea these days. One thing for sure is that I learn fast and I could make connections between different things to make sense of the situation quickly. Sometimes I may not be able to see the whole picture as I am someone who pays attention to details. Yeah, I'm still in the middle of a self discovery.
It seems strange but the last 3 days seem to be specially arranged for me to become a person who is less risk averse. Like I was telling everyone, the most important lesson that I had in skiing over the weekend was about confronting my fears and overcoming them. Today's lesson was a reminder that if I fear failure, I will never be able to get to the other side, where my dream comes true.
