Elon Musk's Top 10 Secrets of Success

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX7I_Rw8Q0I

Selecting the Right Path for Career

I met Jin at s seminar sponsored by the Chinese Engineers & Scientists Association of Southern California.  Jin is a graduate student at UCLA studying abroad from China.  Similar to any students preparing to enter the work market, she asked me questions related to finding a direction for her career path and her abilities to be competitive in the market place.  What I saw was a bright, articulate, and beautiful young lady with lots of potential but didn't realize it.  We had an extensive conversation.  Following is a letter she sent me updating her progress since our conversation.  With her permission I'm sharing this letter hoping that it can help more young emerging professionals as well.

"Dear Ms. Lan:

I am very happy that you would like to know what I learned from our conversation and are willing to listen to my recent updates. I actually see you as my mentor after our conversation. I learned a lot from you and really appreciate the way you handle career and life. I would like to keep you updated on what I have been doing and achieving, and get feedbacks from you.

 Summary of meeting with Ms. Lan:

There are three most important things I learned from you:

1. Always looking for opportunities to grow instead of looking for opportunities to gain more money.

I really appreciated that you said this and it is really eye opening for me. I have been taking some classes in business school at UCLA. I feel everyone here is talking about how to make more money. It kind of put myself into that way of thinking as well when I began to spend more time with people from business school. You tend to look for ways to make money. But what you said is very correct. We are not here to make money. We are here to grow. This is more important in our life. Whenever I feel I got lost, I always remember this sentence you said.

2.  Persistence.

This is another important lesson I learned from you. I remembered that I asked you how come you always concur the hardest project? What is your secret? You told me it is persistence. As long as you keep doing it and do not give up, you will achieve it one day. I think this is a great lesson. We all face difficulties in our life. There will be one point that we just feel we can not do it anymore. But if we are just being a bit more persistent, maybe we will see the light of hope very soon. Whenever I think about quit, I always remember this and try to do a bit more.

3.  Being proactive and aggressive.

We discussed about how Chinese culture is very different from American culture. We tend to teach people to be humble and not being proactive. I also told you that sometimes I feel intimidated and not confident enough. I tend to think a lot and doing nothing in the end. I am intimidated by my own imagination. You told how you understand me, since we are from the same background. I can only believe myself and be more proactive. So whenever, I want to do something now, I tried to not think too much and intimidated by the potential negative results. Instead, I will just do it.

Here are the progress I have made in the past few months.

1. I wanted to apply for the president of Biological Science Council during on meeting. However, I got intimidated and was worried people won’t vote for me and I will look bad. So I did not end up raising my hands to join the competition. After talking with you and determined to become more proactive, I chose to apply for the president of Advanced Degree Consulting Club (ADCC) and got the position.
2. Right now, I am spending a lot of time on this club. I tried to host more events for members in our club. This is a lot of workload and time commitment. Sometimes, I got tired and wanted to have a rest. I tend to think that maybe I should not have this one event. In that case, I do not have to work as much. However, whenever I think this way, I just remember being proactive. Just to push myself to do it first and once it started; I can not stop until I finish it. I also see all those as the opportunities for me to grow. So I try to grasp as much opportunities as I can. I also try not to fall in my negative thoughts loop. I do them and not think about the potential negative results. Because even though I fail, what could happen. In school, this is my best chance to do whatever I want and fail. Because no one would say anything. However, if I find a job and kept failing on my job, no one would forgive me. So I see school as the best opportunity for myself to be brave and try different thing, learn and grow without the worry of failure.
3. Also, I am trying to take on more responsibilities and finding more opportunities to grow.

Here is my plan for the future:

  1.  Throw more events for ADCC and get more people involved with club.  I am talking with a consulting company who want to host info session on campus.

I am talking to two past members who are potentially interested in helping club members

Trying to get an advisor for our club. I have one potential target. He is a professor at business school. But he is hard to reach. I plan to show up at his class on this Saturday and ask him in person.

Trying to get more people in the industry to talk about their experience as consultant. I am working on the list of people now

Trying to set up mini MBA class to teach graduate student about business.

2. I am one of the organizers of Socal Healthcare Young professionals. I am preparing a list of panel speaker for the next event

3. I am applying to become the graduate student rep for the healthy campus steering committee. In that way, I can meet with the school chancellor and discuss about school issues.

4. I am applying to become the rep for Biological Science Council for Graduate Student Association.

5. Since, I am interested in consulting. I made a plan for myself to study two hours consulting cases everyday, and finish the ten day MBA book in one month.

6. I am taking a venture team competition class. Because I feel I have some business background now. I should stop taking so many classes and begin to use what I learned in real life case.

7. I am planning to attend the KNAPP competition from business school. It is another way for me to get real life experience. I have one friend who is working on promoting olive oil from Tunisia, and another friend who is working on a fashion app. I am in talking with them to attend the competition.

8. My friend suggested me to join the toastmaster group. I am considering it.

9. Going to more social events and make more connections

10. I am taking a statistics class to prepare for lending a job in pharmaceutical companies. As much as I want to do consulting, I can not guarantee that I will join for sure. So it is better to prepare myself in both ways. That is why I am taking statistics.

I also got some good tips from a friend about how to organize my time.

1.  I should spend 9-6 solely on my research. Or I could not finish my project and get graduated if I do not do so. However, I found myself spending a lot of time on other things, such as consulting club. Do you think I should cut down my time on extracurricular activities?

2.  Make a schedule for everyday work and put it somewhere obvious. So your professor can keep track about what you are doing and know that you are making progress.

3.  Do all the extracurricular activities after 6pm.

4.  Schedule all the meeting in the afternoon and try to do as much in the morning

5.  Go to school early 

6.  Do not spend more than 10 hours on consulting club per month. If you do so, you are not being efficient enough

7.  Learn how to communicate efficiently. Sometimes, I spend too much time email back and forth. He suggested me to give bullet points in one email to get all the answers once.

8.  Join toastmaster, it shows that you can communicate

9. Take notes during interview and summarize your notes in the end. Bosses like it

10. He also think I am doing too much now. I should just choose three most important ones, which are consulting club, toastmaster and one competition

What do you think? Should I cut down what I am doing now? I know I am doing a bit too much now. But I feel I only have one year left. If I do not use those opportunities, I am not going to get them anymore. I want to build up my resume and get more experience in business. I feel other competitors have a lot on their plates. I need more. What do you think? Should I just choose the most important three things to do? And what would be your advise to me?

Thank you and sorry for the super long email. I just have a lot to talk to you. Hope to hear from you

Jin"            -- by Jin Zhang

Q&A with an Aspiring Young Professional

I had a conversation with a lovely new graduate who studied in the U.S. but was born and raised in China.  She asked me some typical questions about establishing a career in the U.S. as a non-native-speaking person.  I'm sharing her summary of our conversation since I think it will help many aspiring young professionals as well.

"First of all, regarding how I should overcome the problem of always forgetting, you suggested me to do use some commonly known efficient methods I learned from school to cope. You suggested me to find a way to stay focused so as to improve memory. You also mentioned writing things down for reviewing. I feel that it might be good for me if I keep a diary of this type of experience, where I have conversation with mature and experienced people and get some of my confusion cleared. I have got to deal with it someday, so I’d better figure out earlier. If I like dealing with problems, this should be on top of the list also. Because I kept bringing up this topic, it is probably a big problem deep in my subconsciousness.

When I asked how I should improve my public speaking skill, you suggested me to join some clubs to practice, to talk to people, to tell stories to children and so on. You let me know that we should not always try to avoid our weaknesses. Instead, we should face it and change it. We do not have to be perfect but it is important that we know what is important. The key of public speaking is to make our point clearly. The thinking process, the logic, and the way we deliver our message are more important the language grammar and fluency themselves. There are a lot of great people who speak English as a second language and are still able to make their points clearly as well as show their great personalities. Therefore, I should not struggle with the language itself or pursue perfection. It is not very possible while improving my thinking ability and communication skill are what I should focus on.

When I asked how I should take my family’s expectation into consideration when making my own decision, you suggested me to take the responsibility for myself as guideline and principle. Our parents do not only expect us to achieve greatness, what they really want from us is that one day we would be able to take care of ourselves and that we live happily. At the end of the day, it is myself who I am living for and I shall grow up one day. Therefore, I should make decisions for the goal that one day I can depend on myself but not my parents. And if I succeed one day, my parents would be so proud of me.

Also, when balancing my own career path and the wish to help with my father’s existing business, you asked me to take advantage of it and use his network and other resources to accelerate my growth and career development. While helping his business, I am also helping myself because I learn from his experience in the most efficient way due to his most willingness to give me whatever he has.  What I need to do for now is to discuss with him how much time and energy he expects me to spend with him and his business, then I can conduct and be okay with what we decide rationally. By complementing each other, we gain the best outcome.

You also shared with me that degree diplomas are important tools in terms of social recognition as well as in systemizing what we learn from school and work mutually, thereby improving our ability to learn, to think, to work and increasing our competency in many aspects.

Last and most importantly, you asked me not to regret on what I have chosen in the past, but move forward and decide what to do next more rationally. When making a decision, I shall not always try to avoid facing my weaknesses. If so, I will pay the price someday.

According to what you taught me, I feel that I need to have more self-discipline and stronger faith. And I will do my best to be a better person."       - by Jiali Chen

Professionalism

We know it when we meet someone that is professional.  This article provides a good summary of habits that I personally believe in and would like to share with you:

http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/17-simple-habits-that-make-you-look-more-professional.html

http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gOuhCvdnajCPdSaBCidWqYBWcNFRvZ?format=standard

Recently I gave a presentation to a group of graduate students on how to make better oral presentations.  Later I came across this article which I like a lot since it talks about many points that I've demonstrated at my presentation as well:

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919701&bcid=25919701&rssid=25919691&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Ftm%2F%3Fuuid%3DC5FD41EE-1FF6-11E5-B04E-71C9B3743667

38 of the Most Inspirational Leadership Quotes...Ever

By Dr. Travis Bradberry

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No one can deny the power of a good quote. They motivate and inspire us to be our best.

Here are 38 of my absolute favorites:

1. “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” —Mother Teresa
2. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou
3. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford
4. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” —Vince Lombardi
5. “Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent of how I react to it.” —Charles Swindoll
6. “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” —Oprah Winfrey
7. “Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
8. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” —Jimmy Dean
9. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” —Audrey Hepburn
10. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
11. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” —Les Brown
12. “Do or do not. There is no try.” —Yoda
13. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” —Napoleon Hill
14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” —Mark Twain
15. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan
16. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” —Albert Einstein
17. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” —Stephen Covey
18. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” —Henry Ford
19. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker
20. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart
21. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” —Aristotle Onassis
22. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
23. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand
24. “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” —Vincent Van Gogh
25. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” —Farrah Gray
26. “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” —Dalai Lama
27. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” —Albert Einstein
28. “What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” —Bob Dylan
29. “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” —Leonardo da Vinci
30. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller
31. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” —John Lennon
32. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
33. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” —George Addair
34. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” —Plato
35. “Nothing will work unless you do.” —Maya Angelou
36. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt
37. “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” —Plutarch
38. “Control your own destiny or someone else will.” — Jack Welch

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Travis Bradberry, Ph.D.

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning coauthor of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and the cofounder of TalentSmart^® the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries.

Dr. Bradberry is a LinkedIn Influencer and a regular contributor to Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, The World Economic Forum, and The Huffington Post. He has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Fast Company, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

Be Your Best Cheerleader

At the beginning of our career, it is not too difficult to receive positive reinforcements since we are surrounded mostly by people more senior than us.  As we move up in the career ladder, we start to play more and more of a cheerleader role for others instead.  One day we may find that no one's there to give us a pat on the back any longer.  We are on our own!

This presents an interesting situation for those of us who grew up in traditional Chinese families.  We tend to self-depreciate and seldom believe that we deserve the complements we receive.  So, how do we be our best cheerleader when no one else is around?

Doing the following helps me:

1)  Exercise -- A 30-min on the treadmill,  a 60-min. stretch routine, or a long walk to the beach can do wonders.  Since Chinese women do not like sun exposure, make sure you put on plenty of sun block for protection.

2)  Account for Achievements -- Keep a journal of achievements, no matter how small.  You'll impress yourself later on.

3)  Share Results -- Brag about your achievements to your loved ones.  Ask for permission if necessary.  Make it fun and light.

4)  Choose Positive -- Make a conscious choice to use only positive statements on EVERYTHING.

5)  Persist -- Keep pressing on rain or shine.

In the February 2015 edition of National Geographic magazine, an article on super battery talks about John Goodenough who's practically the father of today's major lithium ion batteries.   He was literally abandoned by his parents and suffered dyslexia.  It seemed like all odds were against him.  However, he grew up to be extremely warm, self-confident, and funny, and became extremely successful.  He must have figured out early on how to be his own best cheerleader.  If it is possible for him, it is possible for anyone.