Hello Class,
In class today we covered a variety of topics, from how companies use external innovation (crowdsourcing) to hearing Professor Darwin’s inspiring story growing up and how those experiences have shaped his personal mission and vision.
For the blog today, please set aside some time for introspection. Consider what consistent morals can serve as your north star as you embark on some of the best years of your life. Believe me, I understand the weight trying to decide, “what do I want to do with my life?” because I’m still asking myself that question. However, it’s good to keep in mind that while the tactics (i.e. career) that you employ to achieve your personal mission and vision can (and will very likely) change over the course of time, it is important to spend time these formative years of your life thinking not only about what you want to be, but who you want to be.
Before next class, please comment on what motivates you; this will help you to prepare for your one-on-one meeting with Professor Darwin in the coming weeks.
As always, I’m happy to be a resource to you – just reach out.
dw
Two weeks ago, I had a phone interview for a job. It was a behavioral interview and I could feel how the interviewer and I were going through the checklist (“tell me about yourself”, “tell about a time…”, you know). But then, the interviwer asked “what makes Jean Carlo, Jean Carlo?” I had to ask for a few seconds to think about it because it caught me off-guard. The answer I gave was probably the only genuine, non-mechanincal statement I uttered in those 20 minutes: My desire for knowledge. The interviewer actually liked my answer, but must have hated my previous ones since I didn’t get to second round. The point of the story is that this concept of *who* I want to be started to materialize in my head only two weeks ago: I’m still very new to the idea, but at least I have started to work on it.
My desire for knowlegde is what keeps me motivated. I believe that knowledge brings wisdom and that’s who I want to be: a wise human being.
I’m sure I will elaborate a lot more on my motivation and how I can make it a lifestyle in the upcoming weeks. Looking forward to reading every else’s posts on the motivation topic!
The top three words I associate with myself are: creation, impact and intention.
I am happiest when I am creating. This could mean creating a business or creating a piece of art. I am the most engaged when interacting around creation or ideation. I enjoy thinking about all the possibilities and pushing what we believe is to be possible. I feel there is always a solution. Sometimes you just need to think outside the box to find that solution.
Everything I do I ask myself what is the impact and how can I contribute to the world to make it a better place. Once again this can be small or big. An example of a small act of impact is preforming random acts of kindness – such as buying extra movie tickets and handing them to random strangers or taking the time to talk to someone who is homeless. The big impact I am currently undertaking is my nonprofit in hopes to have the nonprofit touch lives globally.
If every action we made we placed intention behind it we could live our lives with less regret and more alined purpose. I also think that its important to ask yourself “what was their intention?” when trying to determine someone actions. I feel I gain more clarity by asking the question and may see things with a different perspective.
I think the question posed of what motivates us is all relative, based on our past experiences and what we know life to be thus far. I’m not sure there is just one thing that motivates me, but rather a cumulative effort of a variety of different components.
If I had to list the top three factors that currently motivate me, they would be: wealth, knowledge and happiness. I’m sure they will change with time, and are probably changing everyday. The question of what we’re going to do for the rest of our lives is a scary one. It seems illogical to do something that you wouldn’t want to do for the rest of your life, day 1 after graduating college. However, given how companies operate (and just life), it’s difficult to land your “dream job” right out of the gate.
How does one justify the “invested” time into landing this dream job, during arguably, our most productive years (20’s)? Questions like these pose interesting scenarios, in which we can discover who we truly are, and what really matters to us.
I believe this point of view is very similar to mine in the sense that I also believe that values and goals will and should change over time. The values that are the most attractive to me today are wealth, strong relationships, honesty and knowledge. At the moment I am putting myself in the center of attention while trying to pursue goals that will help me approach my vision. One reason to why I am choosing to focus on myself might be that I have no strong ties to people in which I am in debt or obligated to help. However, in the future I see myself as a business leader and a family father. When that time comes I believe my actions and values will change in order to focus on other people.
I agree with Kaushal that everyone is motivated by different factors of past experiences. I am largely motivated by my own, as well as other people’s happiness. I have always had a passion for the environment and helping the community, which is a largely motivator in what I chose to study and the career I hope to pursue in the future. There’s no doubt that the things that motivate me are constantly changing and adapting to new things I learn and experience. For the time being, I strive to surround myself with smart people and learn from them.
I have an aunt that is a sculptor in her spare time as well as an art restaurateur as her main job. While she is a very withdrawn person, her pieces of art are anything but. Her passion for taking the works of the past and turning them into something valuable today is truly inspiring.
What’s interesting is that I actually don’t think of myself first when I try to come up with what motivates you. I am blessed to be part of such a large family that I always think of which path they are taking and how I can be of service to them. They don’t have the same resources that I do and are poor relatively speaking (the aunt that I talked about still has to ask her parents for money when she wants to take the train). Where I come from, money also has a different meaning and different dimension than here. In another class, a speaker talked about never having seen so many zeroes after a number when looking at his scholarship amount.
I think that it’s important to remember where you came from and how you can be of service to your home community in order to figure out what path to take in life.
From my freshman year, I have been working with many startups on helping them to expand and raise fundings, and I found it in particular worthwhile since I help with them the most hard part. After pivoting on my career paths from finance to politics, I am settled my mind working as a venture capitalists and future entrepreneur. I enjoy the work of a VC as it provides opportunities to startups and fight together with them. It is like a battle and I am the machine supplier. Because I see myself not ready to be an entrepreneur right now, I see the job of a VC as a stepping point for me to understand what the tech industry is about before I actually do my own startup. What keeps me motivating is that what I do, whether VC or startup, is in a way to solve a problem for the greater public.
I believe what motivates me is the constraint of time. I realize that in my life, there is no time to do everything that I want to do, so I must think carefully about the activities and things I take on. There are two main things I want to pursue. I could either go for personal gains and maximize my own enjoyment of my time, or I could go for creating gains for the everyone else, and make an impact in the world. The best option is if I can find something that I enjoy, and also benefits everyone else as well. I realize that any actions I can ever do is insignificant and fleeting to the universe as a whole, and will not make any difference any how. This understand allows me to realize that I can do whatever I want to do, and frees me from the burden of expectation and judgement.
Apologies for the last post but I wanted to put some time and consideration into my response. In terms of what motivates me I would say my friends and family. Seeing how much they believe in me and the amount of love and energy that they invest in me pushes me to live each day to the fullest and chase after my dreams. I work hard and strive to be a better person because I want to make my parents proud and show them that their hard work has paid off. I also want to be a good role model for my younger sister and show her that nothing is within your reach if you’re willing to work for it. I live because my friends and family are alive and knowing that my success can in turn benefit them is what drives me. After the lecture on Thursday I called my dad and asked him the exact same question, “what motivates you?”, and he responded with “love.” I have the potential to make a lot of money, perhaps become a successful entrepreneur but success, passion, knowledge and ambition hold little value to me if I don’t have people to share it with.
I had to think about it deeply for this post. What motivates me in life is joy. I like being happy and making other people´s happy. My goal is helping people , the ones that surrender me : family ,my friends ,my peers … but also the ones that are in other countries and they are suffering. I would like to work for an International Organization and try to contribute with main causes such as the protection of Human Rights in countries where they are not respected.
I would like to have a diplomatic job and deal with governments and lobbies to fight against injustice. My main values is being open-minded and listen to different opinions , think broadly ,try to be generous with my time and put passion in the things I do .
After much thought, I realized that I am motivated by the fear of missing out. Immediately after graduating high school I learned that life is quite short. With 20 years under my belt, there are still numerous goals I hope to achieve within the next 10, 20 or 30 years. Knowing that I may never have the opportunity to travel to Asia or to start my own company, I am motivated to tackle all of my goals early. For example, one major goal that I am afraid will never come to fruition is starting my own clothing company. Within the next 2 years I could be entering an industry that would hinder me from designing garments, managing the business’s financials, and connecting with consumers on a creative level. Motivated by this fear of missing out, I am constantly working towards bringing this idea to life. At the end of the day, I want to be happy with my time spent and all that I have done.
I have always believed that whatever I end up deciding to do in the future, I have to be making a greater social impact. However, the world also tells me that I should be motivated by personal gains and successes. Although I believe I am also motivated by factors such as wealth, it is much more important to me that I am the best person I can be and share the gifts I have with others to help them succeed. These are the values I grew up with at home. As the eldest of eight children, I strive to do my best at every task at hand in order to be a good role model to my younger brothers and sisters. I want to show them that by working hard and believing in themselves, they can achieve anything they set their minds to. I also strive to help them with their homework, chores, or life problems whenever I can to show them that they will always have the support and love to help them achieve their goals. This is what brings me joy and meaning to my life– to be a light for my family and those in need.
The people in my life have shown me that there is “common ground” to be found everywhere and stories to be shared. These stories inspire me to find a way to create / be a part of something bigger than myself – to contribute to something with a lasting impact. Each day I seek opportunities to learn new things that allow me to draw connections in the world – between people, events, ideas.
I’m motivated by my desire for life to be colorful and meaningful. Right now, like many of my peers, I’m trying to discover and master what my “craft” is. I aspire to find it at the intersection of what I love to do, what I’m good at, and what people are happy to pay for. I continue to seek opportunities to master my “craft” (whatever it may be), so that I can effectively share the joy and meaning that I find with those around me.
There is one thing that motivates me which is life. Being alive and well is an incredible blessing and I know that time is limited in a sense. So because of that I want to live my life to my fullest potential and only hope to surpass and exceed my goals through my life. I want to explore, be knowledgable and affect the ones around me whether it be through a laugh or smile or an invention that will benefit their life. I also want to enjoy whatever I am doing because why not live the life you have always imagined.
I think what motivates me is the belief to make other’s life better because of me. Whether it’s being a good daughter, a good friend, or a good employer. I want to show my care to people around me and be a support for them. People cannnot live alone. It is through social interaction that we find value in ourselves. Being able to do just a little for people I care means a lot to me because I find happiness through helping others find happiness. There may be a lot of other things that motivates me throughout my life, but the belief to make other’s life better will always be my prior motivation.
I am motivated to succeed as I want to maximize my potentials and talents. I believe that each person in this world has a role to play, given his/her different unique talents and capabilities. I also believe that each person also needs to integrate with other people. With whatever talents trusted unto us, we ought to give back and find the purpose of doing things beyond our egocentric desires. Therefore, what really drives me to go above and beyond with life is the daily realization that I have a role to play in the world.
It is important for me to live a compassionate and balanced life. We all are interconnected and serve a purpose in life. I believe it is my duty to share my knowledge and talents with the people around me. Whatever I decide to pursue, I know that my meaning exists not in what I do but in who I am. I value mindfulness and cultivating genuine relationships. I’m motivated by the fruitful and passionate personalities I encounter throughout my day. I am also motivated by wealth and the desire for knowledge but realize that inspiring and helping people lead valuable lives brings me much more happiness. My life thesis statement is to understand and help all kinds of people in this world in anyway I can.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Willa Cather — “Success is never so interesting as struggle.” While goal achievement is always a plus, I’m motivated day-to-day by the challenges I face. Working through complex problems and reflecting on my processes gives me a more sustainable sense of achievement. I also feel a larger sense of character growth by placing myself in uncomfortable situations, preventing complacency. Given this, I want to pursue a post-grad work/lifestyle that complements the roots of my motivation (something that I’m still exploring!).
I really liked this class and the chance of being able to think about us and what do we want. I have been aware of this since I launched my first startup 5 years ago and I am still modifying my personal business model. What has motivated till now was the possibility of making this world a better place and have an impact. I have the chance to get access to a great education and a great family and support so I want to give to others this chance. What matters to me is education, I want to improve the educational model to tailor it and make it the best growth tool to every one of us. My mission makes me stay up at night and make me jump out of bed in the morning.
This is my favorite blog response so far. In the prompt, Dan says “it is important to spend time these formative years of your life thinking not only about what you want to be, but who you want to be.” I couldn’t agree more. One of all-time favorite quotes is, “Forget about having an identity crisis and get some identity capital.…Do something that adds value to who you are. Do something that’s an investment in who you might want to be next.” I try to invest time and energy into building identity capital.
Back to what motivates me, it’s the desire to create and sell exceptional products and services, the desire to connect with exceptional people and the desire to set up a life that I don’t ever want to escape from. Our class and UC Berkeley is just another node on the critical path to that goal 🙂