Working hard is my biggest mistake

by the show of hands

who would agree that a tremendous amount

of work was put

into building the burj khalifa

what about ronaldo becoming one of the

most notable soccer players

in the world or malala

breaking the record for being the

youngest noble peace prize

laureate we all accept the norm that

working hard

leads to greatness but what if i told

you

that my biggest mistake is working too

hard

and before i modify all the parents and

teachers

let me explain in school

i had perfect grades participated in

many extracurriculars

and tried to do it all

and it wasn’t because i was some sort of

genius

or had some amazing talent i

just worked hard i had all the energy

and couldn’t

fathom what it would look like if i

burned out

i literally lived up that saying you’ll

catch up on sleep

when you’re dead we all have

aspirations and dreams that drive us

each and every single day

and with that come sacrifice love

and dedication towards the end result

my dream is to improve the way students

learn

and combat the issues with the education

system

there were many moments during school

where my siblings and i desperately

needed tutoring

but my family could not afford it and it

hurt

because we saw other students overcome

the same challenges much

faster because their family could

and just like accessing tutors was a

difficult situation for us

student debt was also a major concern

but the thing is we were not alone

millions of students like us share these

problems and while i

was fortunate enough to have overcome

the challenges

i know many students have it worse

and so after i graduated from high

school

i became very invested in tackling these

issues

and immediately started a company with

this purpose

as i transitioned into the university of

washington the work for my company

started ramping up

i worked on it alongside school

internships and volunteering

i was trying to build a company from

nothing a process that is a full-time

venture

on its own while managing the stressful

life

of being a student

there were many days where i had to

manage company deadlines

exams and internship interviews

and i wouldn’t know where to start

sometimes

i would break down and lose hope

so to accommodate i worked as much as

possible and never wasted a second

i disregarded my emotional well-being

isolated myself for long periods of

times to accomplish goals

and was on this bulldozer mentality

where i wasn’t going to let

anything prevent my company from being

the number one platform

in the world pausing and taking a break

seemed absurd i don’t have time

to waste and so here i was bolting

through everything and was able to

graduate two years early from the

university

keep in mind i was doing a lot of

execution

but little reflection and with this

momentum my company was selected to be a

part of the university startup

competition

with the chance to win the first place

award

however to me this competition was more

than just getting

an award it was going to determine

if my company was going to succeed so it

was

crucial we win

fast forward to the award ceremony my

team and i were anxiously waiting

to hear our names the companies moving

on to their next round

were being announced in alphabetical

order

and finally we got to the letter right

before

hours okay then

the next name we heard was nano dropper

my heart sank

they didn’t call her name and i felt

like everything i had done

up to this point was in vain i felt that

my company wasn’t good enough

and just like that at the snap of a

finger

all the blood sweat and tears

that i had put into launching my company

were disregarded

as if i hadn’t done anything no one

believed in me

and it was all over

in may of 2019

after years and years of adrenaline and

pushing through

i finally burnt out

i had no motivation and did nothing for

the next few days

and that was weird but whether i liked

it or not

life forced me to slow down and think

about the situation

i try to identify why we lost the

competition

but never got an answer and this

frustrated me

so i reached out to my close circle for

advice which was unusual of me

in our conversations my brother

introduced me to the creativity walk

a walk where you reflect on the things

going on in your life and evaluate both

past

and future decisions i immediately

laughed and called it a waste of time so

you’re telling me that a walk will

magically vanish all my problems

he kept insisting and saying that it

helps him a lot

so i took that as a challenge to prove

him wrong after all

if it doesn’t magically fix all my

problems

i still got some exercise

and so the next morning i put on my

headphones and jogged the park across

the street

i was going to walk a mile or two and

think about the competition

and well i finished the two miles

and just like i thought i wasted

my time so i called my brother

and as i was about to say i told you so

he told me to try it again and you can

call me crazy

but i listened and did it again

and again and again

until eventually i gave up

at this point it’s been two to three

weeks

since i tried and while i was still in

distraught

from the competition i was doing a

little thing

here and there but to make the situation

worse

but our company faced its first server

shutdown

which affected all of our students at

2am

i was the only one awake and it was up

to me to find a resolution

and i was panicking at the same time

i was not in the right mental state to

handle it but unintentionally i got up

and i started pacing around the house i

went back

and forth it kept going

until eventually i started to feel my

stress level drop

and i was slowly able to identify the

problem

within a couple hours of sitting back

down i fixed it

and so that’s when it clicked what my

brother had been saying about the

creativity walk

wasn’t nonsense while pacing back and

forth

i felt like i was taking a break from

the crazy motions of life

to ask myself what’s going on

i was able to phase out the chaos and

approach the situation

with a clear mind and so

this made me confused why did nothing

happen the past two

to three weeks well it was because i was

constraining my thoughts

i forced myself to think about the

competition which is

actually ineffective it turns out

that the whole purpose of a creativity

walk is to let your mind wander free

and so for the first time i felt like i

was having a conversation myself

the creativity walk allowed me to

visualize my thoughts and rediscover

myself it gave me an unbiased

perspective

allowing me to form new connections

i realized that the bulldozer mentality

i had was restricting my ability to grow

trapping me in an everlasting cycle of

work i was often consumed by the events

in my life

which were clouding my judgment and

making me oblivious to the obvious

you can think of your everyday life as

the execution period

and the time spent reflecting as the

research period

and so just like it is necessary to

research a project before executing

it is imperative you do the same with

yourselves

our life journey is our biggest project

and reflection is essential to making

sure we’re growing and discovering

what truly matters to us not

only did the creativity walk become one

of my most important habits

it extended to other aspects of my life

i started taking the stairs instead of

the elevator to stimulate my mind

i would regularly take breaks in between

tight deadlines

and i forced myself to take a day off

every week

and do something fun because a break is

actually productive and while adjusting

my lifestyle was hard at first

after i got comfortable i quickly

noticed my ability

to recover from stress and reboot

studies from harvard indicate that

people who reflect and exercise

have a greater volume in the parts of

the brain that stimulate thinking

and memory the continuous work

i had been doing without breaks had

hindered my ability to

think clearly which was a huge reason we

lost the competition

i missed numerous factors during the

preparation that were critical for our

success

and so this creativity walk helped me

overcome burnout

and organize a plan to recover from this

daunting failure

to start my team and i reached out to

the judges to give feedback

we analyzed all our weaknesses and

decided it wasn’t time

for us to give up we completely revamped

our app

changed our strategies and truly made a

huge leap forward in terms of traction

a few months later we were invited to a

program that provides mentorship

and the chance to receive funding in our

final presentation

we addressed the issues from the

previous competition and

absolutely nailed it

while losing the competition seemed like

the worst day of my life

it taught me a lesson i will never

forget reflecting

is not an optional part of the journey

it’s a necessity

it will help you grow from mistakes

provide added perspective

and is crucial for your emotional

well-being

the truth is many of us are busy with

our lives and forget to take a moment to

slow down

we need to recognize the importance of

reflection in the

impact it has on our lives

we all have different reasons to reflect

whether it be to identify change

uncover breakthroughs or solidify new

ideas

there is no one-size-fits-all method

for some it may be biking for others

it may be gardening and while the

creativity walk

may be special to my brother and i the

concept

is universal at the end of the day it’s

simply time

allocated to free up your mind and with

that being said

i urge everyone here to discover your

version

of their creativity walk and take some

time

out of your day to reflect reboot

and rediscover yourself thank you san

diego