Written by: Filomela Gerou, Entrepreneurial Leadership Program WN23-FA24
Takeaways from Failures
Your managers, advisors, and mentors are valuable resources that you should fully leverage to maximize your success.
Early in my journey collaborating with a superior, I made the mistake of assuming that my assigned tasks were something I had to completely navigate on my own, without any guidance, despite not having prior experience in the matter. This led to hours spent training on relevant, and sometimes not that relevant, background knowledge, test examples, and even just staring at my screen hoping for enlightenment. While I was silently putting in the time and effort into understanding my project and getting it done, my advisor was not seeing the progress he expected. While I thought the noble, admirable thing would be to spend long hours figuring something out from 0 to 100, the expectation was to ask the questions that would get me to 100 much faster.
Once I understood this, I put a conscious effort to work with my advisor, rather than for my advisor. To do this, I ensured I was working at a time when they were available to instantly answer any questions and concerns, while also confirming that I am working on the right track in real time. Despite it being initially counterintuitive to me that asking questions adds value to your work, rather than removing value from it, it became evident that it is merely a part of effective collaboration. Ironically, this helped me grow into a more confident team member as it emphasized the importance of utilizing the knowledge of my peers and supervisors in increasing my expertise on a subject. My contribution was now more tangible and evident, because my communication skills had improved.
Takeaways from successes
Reward yourself whenever you complete a task and practice gratitude.
Reminding yourself that the work you are putting in is meaningful, is essential in avoiding burn out. A great way to do this is keeping track of your weekly progress in an excel sheet and observing the development of your work as it approaches your next project goal. This brings me to my next point, which is the undeniable importance of breaking down a problem into smaller, digestible parts, that will help you fully understand the problem you are trying to solve, which as they say, is half the solution itself. By doing this, you have given yourself the agency of fully understanding your abilities and your work style, and the responsibility of forming a schematic that, when followed, will lead to your success. At each checkpoint, reward yourself in some small way (exercise, a nice meal, spending time with friends) and reflect on the impact of the work you are doing and then keep going. This will influence your psychology when tackling the next piece of your puzzle by having strengthened your confidence in your abilities.
I have also learned that gratitude is an essential part of success. While it may sound “woke-y” at first, the foundation of this lies in taking your work seriously and addressing it with detail and determination at each stage. Whether you were assigned (by yourself or someone else) to write down the alphabet or to solve the three-body problem, when it is approached with a lack of effort and an uninterested attitude, that is inevitably evident to your team. This might make your team feel discouraged at best, and disappointed at worst. As an entrepreneur, you are always in charge of a multitude of things, some of which are complicated and some not. Yet, they are all equally important in the final result. So being grateful that you get the mere opportunity to work within a team that you chose, of your own accord, to join (or form), works as a reminder of putting your best self forward every day.