The high of a great interview for the dream job you desperately want, that presentation you just had with the prospective client you courted for weeks or the proposal you finally sent in after moulding it into perfection. That high is followed by a great downward spiral, the wait. It’s a high for a reason. What goes up must come down. All good things must come to an end. And they do come to an end as the days go by. The first 24 hours are glorious. You are untouchable, you did the impossible, surprised even yourself. There is absolutely no way you aren’t going to be successful. Then the second day comes around and at first you are hopeful. It’s only been two days, no one makes such an important decision in just two days. By the end of the week you are a wreck. Doubts have all but clouded your mind. And your feeble mind succumbs to pressure, replaying everything over and over again, until there is nothing left to overanalyse. Did I smile too much? Or maybe I made a typo. Did I even shower that morning? What if I said the wrong thing and they were too polite to stop me? Maybe I should call them back. And you are plagued with all these negative thoughts that you start blaming yourself for being so optimistic, for having hope. Hope is for the weak after all. And finally you reach a resolve. It’s okay, you don’t need them. You are probably better off anyway. And on to the next one you go, restarting the cycle.
Walking into the UB sports arena on Wednesday morning, I had pegged the De Beers Entrepreneurship Catalyst Conference as just one of those events that I would benefit nothing from. You know the events that I am referring to. Where rich stuffy guys come and tell us about how they made it in long boring lectures. Boy was I glad that I was wrong. The event was nothing short of star studded, from 9 time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, to representatives from Stanford University. Which was expected, after all it is De Beers. To kick off the day, Peter Hong from Google gave what to me was a life changing lecture. He comes from a science background having been a marine biologist at some point in life but has managed to end up at Google with some other interesting experiences in between. His talk, I can confidently say was the highlight of the day for me. Perhaps it was because it was first on the agenda in the morning but I would like to think it was more because of what he said. He f...
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