Weaknesses, Values, Visions - For You and Your Company
I was invited to present a talk at TEDxMSJHS, but due to scheduling conflicts, I wasn't able to make the presentation. However, I still want to post a bit about the talk I was going to give.
I'm about to start my internship with Bridgewater. One reason for choosing this as my internship this summer is their radically transparent culture. For those who don't know, this means that there is no hiding your opinions or thoughts. One example of this is the transparency of people's weaknesses. If you did not perform up to par or if your code was written horribly, someone will be there to tell you and make sure that it does not happen again. Note that everyone around you is trying to make you better. It is incorrect to assume that people hating on you and calling you a terrible person.
Learning about your weaknesses is very important. Changing them, on the other hand, is extremely difficult. Take some time to list them down and slowly try to fix them. Working in a team or company is a great way to accelerating this. People around you can see your problems more often and they can work together with you to try to fix them. I think it's important for most companies to adopt some variation of this transparency culture. This way, we learn to be excited about weaknesses and failures so that we can overcome them next time.
From weaknesses, we move to your values. Your values are what you believe in at a very high level. For some people it might be having a family, having a secure job, having an awesome set of friends, having money, never stop learning, being successful, etc. My value is to make an impact on other people. If I can help someone else with one of their problems, it outweighs everything that I can do for myself. Additionally, I believe that following our own values creates our happiness. You will never be happy believing in other people's values.
Our values lead to our visions. Every single person has ideas about what they want to do with their future and lives. However, I find it funny when people say "I will go do A for a few years, then go back to my vision". One example I get is "I will go into finance and earn money, then go back to doing what I really care about." Why would you spend your time and effort in something you don't believe in?
This goes the same for a company. A company can only have one vision. When hiring new people, they must also believe in that vision. Otherwise, it becomes very easy for conflicts to occur.
When I was in High School, I rarely talked about these three areas. Once college started, I started to realize the importance of understanding yourself. Thus, I believe that during the time that you get a degree in college, you should also figure out your weaknesses, values and visions. Learn not only your academics but also who you are.
