I recently had the privilege of helping to organize a Leadership Summit for young people which meant that I not only got to hand-pick all of the presenters, I also got to listen to these same awesome presenters speak.
A few of the things we covered really stuck with me.
Ikigai. Find what you are passionate about. Find what your community or the world needs. Find what you can be paid for. Find what you are good at. Intersections of these different things help you find your passion, your mission, possibly (hopefully?) your profession and vocation. And where all of these overlap, you find Ikigai.
The future will not be run by AI but rather by humans who know how to use AI. AI and the various other smart technologies are not going anywhere. Don’t be the person in the room that is afraid of it; instead, learn about it, develop your skills with it, and be the human that knows.
You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When you are comfortable – with the task, with the situation, with the job – it is easy to no longer try. When we are uncomfortable, we try harder, and we learn more.
Pick the people you are less similar to, and ask them questions. Learn from them. Ask questions. Invest time in getting to know why they think and do as they do, and be curious about how it relates to what you think and do. Be open to their responses.
Be curious. Learn to fail well. When we fail well, we are asking ourselves “Why didn’t this work yet? What can I try differently next time?”