What Neil Armstrong, Dave Packard and Marissa Mayer have in Common
Plus 3 More Remarkable People who Actively Chose to Launch their Dreams
Pursuing our dreams is a given right? Something we all should do. Alas, all too often we are stuck pursuing short term successes or are afraid of failing. In the back of all our minds and deep in our hearts, rests dreams of doing something great. But along with that dream there is doubt and uncertainty of where to begin. “Pursuing dreams” seems like something abstract and distant. It’s also certainly something our moms told us we should do back in elementary school but for whatever reason, we never really get around to.
But why not do it? While your passions may change over the years, actively pursuing your dreams by joining organizations that will propel your passions is a concrete way to get there. Here are 6 examples of individuals who chose to join organizations that launched their dreams:
1. Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong developed a love for flying at an early age and secured his pilot’s license at the ripe young age of 16. After serving his country in the Korean War (as a pilot no less) and graduating from Purdue with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1955, Armstrong wasted no time in launching his dreams. After working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (pre cursor to NASA), Armstrong moved to Houston to join NASA in 1962. The rest, they say, is history.
2. Dave Packard
Born in 1912 in Colorado, Packard studied electrical engineering at Stanford University. Having built his first radio in while in elementary school, Packard always had a love and skill for building electronics. While most know of the technology behemoth that carries his namesake, few people know or care to note that Packard worked in the vacuum tube engineering department of General Electric Company from 1936–38. While these two years may seem like a pause in Packard pursuing his dreams, we contend that these years were an integral part of launching his dreams culminating in an organization known today as HP.
3. Marissa Mayer
Mayer graduated from Stanford in 1999 with an M.S. in computer science. Being a talented and ambitious candidate, Mayer received 14 job offers from prestigious organizations such as McKinsey & Company. Going into college, Mayer had always thought she wanted to be a doctor. While at Stanford, she discovered her passion for computers and her dreams swayed to the technology industry. One of her 14 job offers came from a small, local startup called …. Google (Mayer was employee #20). Mayer excelled at Google and now, as you likely know, serves as the CEO of Yahoo. Simply put, Mayer followed her passions and actively launched her dream.
4. Chad Hurley
Hurley graduated from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1999 with a degree in fine art. Growing up with an interest in art as well as computers, Hurley landed at job at PayPal working on designing the user interface (and company logo). Sounds like a pretty solid way to launch your dreams of pursuing art and tech in unison. In 2006, Hurley, along with his cofounders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim (also from PayPal, it’s a Mafia, they say) sold this company called YouTube to Google for $1.65 Billion. By joining PayPal, Hurley was able to launch his dreams and set the stage for his massive entrepreneurial success.
5. Sheryl Sandberg
Sandberg’s dream chasing follows a slightly different path than the previous four achievers on this list. She admittedly did not know what her end goals were at the outset of her career. Overtime, while working in the U.S. Treasury Department, “[she] saw from afar how much impact technology companies were having on the world” and “decided to move to Silicon Valley”. While her decision seems like a no brainer today, it was a sizable career risk in the wake of the massive tech bubble burst. Sandberg joined Google (seems to be a popular career/dream launching organization) in 2001 as a VP and left in 2008 to help Mark Zuckerberg “make Facebook a business”. It’s never too late to chase your dreams.
6. Pat Hanrahan
Hanrahan currently serves as the Canon Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Born in 1954, Hanrahan received a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985. While his training is in Biophysics, Hanrahan taught himself to program and pursued his passion of computer graphics. As a founding employee of Pixar Studios, he flourished in the computer graphic space as he pursued his dreams of bringing pixels to life (he has 3 Academy Awards to his name). This experience along with more academic research in the 1990s allowed Hanrahan to cofound Tableau Software, a company that produces interactive data visualization tools geared towards business intelligence, in 2003. Tableau, with a current market cap just under $10 Billion (DATA), has made Hanrahan a billionaire. Hanrahan pursued his love of computer graphics and visualization allowing him to bring immense value to the world.
In conclusion, don’t just take the most available or next opportunity that will bring easy success. Chase your passions by actively pursuing opportunities that truly align with your dreams.
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We built 500 Miles to help students and job seekers launch their career in tech by joining breakout companies. We’re all about helping people discover the organizations that will allow them to propel their dreams. Do you think we are effectively solving the discovery problem? Let us know what you think.
