Most people who, at a young age, accomplish something significant or get their “break” did so because someone decided to take a leap of faith on them. I don’t believe in luck in the traditional sense but what I do believe in is positioning yourself for success. Whether it’s landing that dream job or internship it happened because you took some step, whether right or wrong, to get it.
The more I speak to ambitious teenagers who are hustling toward their dreams everyday I learn that they all have a similar story. It goes something like this: I saw a problem and wanted to find a solution to it so I started doing some research to figure out how. As I did the research I came across cool people who can help me solve it. I reached out. They responded.
The story may not be the same in everyone’s case but some derivative of it is true. If you’re genuinely looking for help to solve a problem getting in touch with the right person to help you isn’t that difficult. Tweet them, use slik.ai to find their emails, google them. You’ll find them and you’ll most likely get a response too.
You determine the outcome in every scenario. What I mean by that is if you never ask you’ll never get an answer. If you ask once there’s a chance you may not get a response. If you ask everyday at 8am you’re most likely going to get a response, maybe in a week, maybe in a month, but you’ll get it. In every case it comes down to how bad you want it.
A closed mouth never gets fed.
One conversation leads to another, a project leads into an internship, the internship into a job. It all started with the question. Start honing your questioning skills. Asking the right questions in any scenario will set you up for success. At least, it has in my experience so far.
Step out of your comfort zone and do something no one would think of doing, this will differentiate you from the rest. This is how 15 year old Stefan Stokic landed an internship with tech tycoon and silicon valley venture capitalist Chris Sacca.
I just heard a story from one of my friends today about how he was planning to start a company and while building the algorithm for it he reached out to the CFO of Tinder on linkedin. While talking to the CFO, the CEO and founder happened to walk in and he had the chance to talk to him as well.
One conversation with the right person at the right time can change the trajectory of your life. In my case one question did. Check it out here.
We all have the capacity of reaching great heights, aim for the stars and see where you land. What’s the worst that’ll happen? You’ll fall? At least you learned something from it.
