Raising Others' Aspirations

A friend shared a write-up by Tyler Cowen about "The high return activity of raising others' aspirations" (see clip below). It reminded me of that time my grad school thesis panelists told me I have so much promise. They said I could go places. I just needed to get over being shy and I just need to be outspoken. 

My grad school marketing professor, Mr. Garcia, created a Yahoogroup for our class. He said he wanted us to speak our thoughts with articles he'd share with us. I hated reciting in class and jumped on the chance to share my thoughts through writing. Mr. Garcia talked to me after class one time and told me I raised very good points in the online discussions. He'd call me during class to recite after that. 

My thesis panelists and professor helped boost my confidence and believe in myself. After completing my MBA I had the lakas ng loob to apply for a product manager position. It was an attempt to shift to more marketing/business development work. Good thing I bungled up an interview at a retail company because it made me prepare more for my interview at a tech company. That's how I got into tech. 

Dev community, c 2011

I realized after my professors helped boost my confidence that I should do the same. I had the opportunity to build communities and part of it meant I had to develop leaders. I got to work with a lot of passionate individuals who also wanted to help others. Key to it was encouraging  them to reach their aspirations. A lot of them were introverts like me. I followed what Mr. Garcia did to me and put them in the spotlight too. 

That time I had Jomar do an HTML5 session

Well, I hope what I did helped others reach their potential, open doors and reach new heights. Sometimes the best thing to do is really take a step back and have others shine. Be the instrument to let others reach their ambitions.  That's what fulfilled me in my work. 

*Thank you to my friend for providing today's inspiration :)

#BeKind #StaySafe