On various occasions, I have been asked the question: What are your core values? It’s never been an easy question, as it points straight towards my heart, examining what is truly important for me, what wakes me up in the morning, or what I stand for. Core values are the distillation of a person’s life experiences. They have to be simple enough to convey to others, and they need to be consistent and purposeful to guide me through the decisions I have to make one after another. They represent what matters.
I moved to Canada at the age of 18 — a defining point in time when I experienced culture shock, transition into university, and being away from my beloved family and best friends. Like a lot of university undergrads, I was ambitious about what I could do to change the world™ (while not knowing what my strengths are and what I should specialize in engineering 😆). It didn’t take long for me to understand how tough adulthood can be. Most of the time, the suffering comes down to the pressures of campus life, relationships with diverse people and surroundings, unclarity of self-identity, and the fears when moving closer to truths, changes, and unknowns. To answer these puzzles, I invested time outside of my coursework, seeking spiritual guidance, traveling, and reading. (When coming across some Chinese classics that we were required to memorize back in high school or even childhood, I find them surprisingly awakening.) I feel grateful that the people I have met, along with the achievements and mistakes I have made in the last six years, have helped me understand myself better.
古之欲明明德于天下者，先治其国；欲治其国者，先齐其家；欲齐其家者，先修其身；欲修其身者，先正其心；欲正其心者，先诚其意；欲诚其意者，先致其知，致知在格物。 — 《礼记·大学》
The ancients who wanted to manifest their bright virtue to all in the world first governed well their own states. Wanting to govern well their states, they first harmonized their own clans. Wanting to harmonize their own clan, they first cultivated themselves. Wanting to cultivate themselves, they first corrected their minds. Wanting to correct their minds, they first made their wills sincere. Wanting to make their wills sincere, they first extended their knowledge. Extension of knowledge consists of the investigation of things.
So what? As inspired by The Great Learning, one needs to keep investigating and learning things around (and within) them, sincerely correcting their minds and cultivating themselves. Then, it’s possible to move onto the next level of pursuits in one’s personal life, professional career, and bright virtue. My core values are derived from my constant perception of my thoughts, my surroundings, and their inherent connections to the ever-changing world we live in. They are the benchmark of how I should lead my life.
Authenticity, Responsibility, Continuous Improvement, and Fun are the four core values I hold onto, and I believe they are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
Authenticity
I keep hearing similar statements such as be true to yourself or be yourself, but I couldn’t find a single best word to describe them — until last year when I visited a small town 绍兴 Shaoxin in Zhejiang, China. The town is famous for its profound cultural and historical roots, being home to several well-known cultural and political personages such as Wang Xizhi, Lu Xun, and Zhou Enlai. Unlike some of its neighboring cities filled with skyscrapers, Shaoxin has a massive collection of ancient bridges and streets. Walking through the town, watching interactions between street artists and passerby, and tasting the unique popsicle made with yellow rice wine gave me the peace of mind that I haven’t experienced in a long while. (Not to mention its cuisine 1, 2, 3) One thing I observed is that lots of Chinese tourist attractions nowadays are much more commercialized with chain snack bars and bubble tea shops all around. It took me a while to look for these authentic places that the locals love going to within the city. Shaoxin is one of the few places that I still felt its food, culture, people, and lifestyle remains its authenticity.
A lot of the times when we visit a restaurant, the most direct (however nuanced) measure of its greatness is whether the place is authentic — whether the dishes, ingredients, service, room decoration, music (you name it) demonstrate the restaurant’s unique characteristics. Often we will hear complaints such as “This restaurant is not authentic anymore after being taken over by the new owner. We will never come here again.” or “I have a feeling that the restaurant must be cutting corners.” Sometimes losing/lack of authenticity is not because the service is terrible (in fact, some there are restaurants known for authentic food but average service). It would be more of a change in attitude if the owner decided to sacrifice the restaurant’s original characteristics when their business is under rapid expansion or going through difficult times.
I find it hard to examine whether I am staying authentic to myself. But it sounds much more natural to ask myself: “If I was the restaurant I loved to go, would I go there again?” or “If I was the customer, would I continue choosing the product I designed and developed?” A lot of times, you will realize that your emotion associated with restaurants, products, or people often has to do with their unique identities and personalities. As a person, being authentic is not about being perfect, and we should expect, welcome, and even celebrate the imperfection in ourselves and the people we meet. Authenticity helps us genuinely identify and accept who we are, what I am (un)interested in, and what I feel (un)comfortable to do.
Being authentic alone is not enough because it exposes the risk of dwelling on truths and judgments for too long without the right actions.
Responsibility
We are all connected. This simple idea always reminds me to consider how the actions I take will have impacts on the people and surroundings, in time and space. There have been countless lessons learned from tragic engineering failures (e.g., Quebec Bridge, Boeing 737 MAX). Sadly, a lot of them could have been prevented if the leadership and engineers understand the potential consequences and take responsibility for the safety and welfare of the public and clients. As an engineer-in-training, I do not stop asking myself if I will be inviting myself, my family, and friends to use the product that I am involved in the development? I am courageous to urge myself to acknowledge my mistakes and come up with solutions to make it right.
The responsibility extends way beyond my professional role. Growing up in a family of teachers, I see the value of education, and I consider it the responsibility for future generations. I enjoy committing myself to educational community services as a mentor, tutor, or volunteer in the areas of my expertise. We play multiple roles in our lives. For each role, I start by understanding how I am connected to the people and circumstance, then take the responsibilities for my actions to make the connection healthy and harmonious.
Continuous Improvement
读好书，交好友，行远路，做大事。 — 云南大学附属中学校训
I like the motto from my secondary school (rough translation is Read good books, Make high-quality friends, Going on a long journey, Do great things). These words may sound unpretentious, and they are not telling us To Be №1. Instead, they demonstrate the continuous actions and principles of how one could thrive. Being authentic allows us to be honest about our strengths and weaknesses. Then, the pursuit of continuous improvement is the right attitude and action that I need to stick with to amplify my strengths and overcome my weaknesses. It is neither a purpose nor a goal. It is the path, or 道 (Tao).
On my journey of continuous improvement, I strive to learn from the best. Taking advantage of the best learning resources online and offline. Getting inspirations from people at the tippy top of their fields on how they learn. Being exposed to the best things humans have made (the definition of best varies from person to person, so it’s also important to develop our own taste, which is difficult). And most importantly, practice.
Fun
Sometimes, I tend to go the extra mile to prepare a well-crafted poster, presentation, video, or documentation for the work I do. Sometimes, I will hide Easter eggs in my projects, and probably no one discovers them. Sometimes I participate in interesting challenges that come with a raffle (knowing the probability of winning is low 😉). Doing these things takes me extra time. I have got questions like What’s your purpose? Why are you doing these? What would you like to get out of it? What do you want others to get out of it? It always took me a while to find answers to these questions, and I still concluded that I don’t know.
Although I could not find the reasons behind doing these things, I always find them FUN! These little fun side projects act as the catalyzer that motivates, accelerates, and enriches my main projects. For me, a crucial measure of my projects/initiatives’ success, is how much fun my teammates and I have had during the process. The level of fun not only relies on the project itself (unfortunately, some projects can get monotone — be mindful deciding what not to work on 😆). It also depends on how much the person doing the project is open-minded, optimistic, and creative enough to seek out opportunities to have fun doing it.
This article marks the starting point of my presence on Medium. Why now? 2019 has been a tough year for me, with a series of missed opportunities and failures that are rooted in a lack of preparation and courage to overcome fears to pursue next-level possibilities. However, these core values acted as the compass guiding me through difficulties with the right mentality, and they woke up me again (and again) to begin anew. My pure intention to start writing down my stories here is to sincerely reflect whether I am holding onto these values in my life — personally or professionally. Putting my thoughts into words also allows me to revisit and refine my new learnings. And of course, I couldn’t be happier to hear if you find my words helpful to you in any way.
