Cohort Stories: Meet Shakilla
vol. 5, no. 80 — guest post by Shakilla Dorinvil
The biggest challenge I have overcome is fear. The fear of failure, the fear of disappointment and even the fear of taking chances. Fear often holds us captive and makes us believe that we are less than we are in actuality. It makes us doubt ourselves and can be paralyzing enough to stop us in our path to success. Fear has made me want to give up on myself or even completely shut down at times. But I realized that I have to appreciate how far I have come and not dwell on where I have not made it yet, because with resilience I will make it there. Nelson Mandela once said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” I had to have courage. The courage to get back up after falling down, sometimes even more than once, and to try again when I don’t get it right the first time.
The courage to keep going and not give up, that is what got me to where I am today.
To be successful in the tech industry means mastering the skills that are necessary for your career. I want to be able to look at data and already have an idea of what decision I will be giving my client, and to have an eye for seeing trends easily. I aspire to excel at my profession so that I am able to use that to my advantage. Having my own startup is also an important part of my road to success. Being successful means not just achieving all of my goals, but to also be a part of something important that will impact many lives for the better. I would like to advance into medical technology and be a part of innovative advancements to help fix problems that people have been struggling with for generations.
My dream job is to work for myself and have a start up medical technology company in biomedical databases using artificial intelligence and big data. There are many companies that have started the progress of achieving this goal and I hope to be alongside them one day. Healthcare organizations manage large operations with tons of data that all can be used to create better outcomes not just for patients, but for the hospitals themselves. You can never be too efficient and it all starts with data.
