Not Once Did We Not Get The Job Done
Written by Harry Li & Li Jiang
Prelude
We wanted to write down some things for Campus Solutions (CS) so that we can show our kids what we did and learned, and so we can share with each other how our lives are going after 12 years, 15 years, 20 years and beyond.
In this post, we talk with Harry Li, our “Hulk”. After CS, Harry worked in banking before jumping into a rapidly-scaling startup to man up business & operations.
The posts are meant to be “rawthentic”, so here it is straight from the horse’s mouth.
Harry:
A meritocratic organization that gave people chances:
- How many of you remember going to college and being awkward, not fully grown into the best person you can be? CS let me do that by constantly challenging me to do what was uncomfortable.
- At the same time if someone ever started straying a bit or had no idea, it was nice that there was someone who had made the same mistake who’s able to drop some knowledge and help you correct back on course.
Diving a bit deeper on growth:
- One of the best pieces about CS was that once you were able to demonstrate independence, there was no coddling anymore. Our goal, though oftentimes understated in hindsight, was to make everyone a capable, independent leader. A bit oxymoronic being an independent leader, but everyone was able to work together when it mattered, but everyone else knew that if a particular person had a job and was tasked to do it, they’d get it done. Case in point? Everyone had a schedule of deliveries per day leading a team and not once did we not get the job done.
Being cool is to do what you love and care for it:
- In high school, I always wanted to reject my nerdy persona and be one of the popular kids. As a result, I probably got made fun of more than I’d care to admit.
- Coming into CS, we had a group of people of all backgrounds and it taught me that it doesn’t matter if one person is the dorky spelling bee champ or if another person is the popular sports athlete, everyone was focused on a single goal, beating out the competition, succeeding, and having a blast while doing it.
- I took that a bit for granted again when I joined the corporate world but when I took a step back and reflected on what made me happy, the CS times helped me realize what I was missing and needed to seek out again.
Your potential is only truly realized by pushing the boundaries:
- I think I speak for many of us when I say that in our experience with CS, we all could have used one more hour of sleep or one additional hour to study for the final for that class we just couldn’t really make click. We probably all felt stressed af at some point with all that was going on and yet, it somehow always turned out ok? Why? We don’t let ourselves fail, and when we did we came back stronger than ever.
- We put a new definition into burning the midnight oil, maybe we should change that phrase to stacking the midnight boxes.
Postlude
Campus Solutions provided students leaving for Summer vacation, internships, or study abroad programs with a full-service logistics solution to store and/or ship their belongings.
Founded in 2007, CS almost instantly became the go-to choice for Northwestern students needing Summer storage and shipping.
By the numbers
50,000+ boxes stored
15,000+ students served
97% on-time rate
33 unforgettable experiences
1 school transformed
