Olina Qian

I am organizing a group called BayFubai business in Google now. It is a group of engineers from some of the top technology companies (Google, Ebay, Yahoo, Facebook etc) in bay area. The group was formed as an outlet for our entrepreneurial and business interests, in the spirit of sharing the knowledge and the drive to get to the next level. Fubai is a Chinese Pinyin, it means enjoying in a luxury way. Bay means Bay Area. So BayFuBai means enjoying ourselves in Bay Area. We meet around every three weeks in Sunday afternoon. Fascinated by Preethy’s driven and motivation. I invited Preethy to be our guest speaker in Sep 27th.

Yes, Sep 27th. It is the day I flew back from China. I got off airplane around 1pm, rushed home, unload my baggage, took a shower, then drove to Google campus in Mountain View. I actually got a fever before I flew back, so on airplane, I was debating, shall I go or shall I tell them I am sick, so I can’t make it. But it is not nice if I invited Preethy, and I don’t show up. So I decided to go.

As usual, Preety came on time. The topic she gave is about Build your career combining passion with profession. She first shared her vision with us. From profession to personal, from social to others. Then she listed out 10 steps to reach the goal:

Step 1: Understand yourself. For example, what do you enjoy doing? It is Interesting that her interesting point is very similar to mine.

Her interesting points are:

1. Presenting

2. Doing something new every 6 months

3. Networking – talking to people

For me, I like

1 Networking – talking to people vertically(people you already know, but you want to carry deep conversation) and horizontally(get to know new people). I feel that I can get lots of energy when I talk to people and get lots of ideas.

2. Coaching – Bring positive energy to people by using my knowledge. I love to live with Dale Carnegie Spirit and I hope I can spread out those human relation principles to everyone I meet to ease their pain in life and make them live happier.

3. Make something happen, make an impact. My coach called me an enabler, a catalyst. Since I love to connect people and get some new ideas. I love to connect the dot, make things happen. I like to bring positive impact to people.

After you defined your interesting point, in step 2, you need to identify the Gap – what skills you have & what you need to reach the goal.

Here are the skill Preethy has:

1. Presentation skills

2. Networking skills

3. Building new teams

And what she is still missing:

1. Business knowledge

2. Marketing

3. Understanding culture & communication

I smiled. Since again we are very similar.

For me, the skill I have are:

1. Organizing skill. I am very good at see a big pictures and organize things around me.

2. My networking skill is good. I love to meet more people and get exposed to new ideas.

3. My communication skill is good. People like me, and they always said they do enjoy talking to me.

What I am lacking is:

1. American business knowledge (exactly the same to her.)

2. American culture & communication (exactly the same again. That’s the constraint of being foreigner.)

3. A business degree (See how many position requires MBA!)

After the self-diagnosis, her step 3 is to aim 1 step beyond. It is so true that we need to think big. I like it.

Her step 4:Constant focus – Spend 1 hour a day on the goal.

I wonder if one hour is enough. I felt I’ve put myself all in now. I am even squeezing my sleep time to move myself forward, which drives me a little crazy sometimes.

Then the Step 5 is to have personal time to gain energy and focus. For example, Yoga & Meditation, Exercise and Nature Walk.

Then I know her secret. Since Preethy is a mom of 4 years old kid. She is also doing Executive MBA in UCLA. She has a full time job, she is also running her own startup. Definitely she is doing more things than me, but she looks happier and more energetic, while I look stressed sometimes. Guess I need to put exercise into my daily schedule and follow it too. Thanks for the reminder.

Now things are getting very interesting. I started to feel glad that I made this session.

Her step 6 is Health & positivity. The ways to be healthy and positive

1. Subscribe to Daily Motivator

2. Listen to motivational speakers – Tony Robbins, Sri Sri etc.

3. Get a massage

Daily Motivator sounds a good stuff. Can anyone tell me where to subscribe that?

Listen to motivational speakers sounds good too. Let me check out Tony Robbins today. They are all mental nutritions. I love to stay healthy both physically and mentally.

Step 7: Peer group – Surround yourself with successful people/group. Oh, I strongly agree to this point. And groups you can join to work towards your goal are:

1. Marketing – SVAMA–(SVAMA is the next group I am going to check out for the next year! It is a great place to meeting Business people and Marketing people.)

2. Entrepreneurship – TiE, SVASE( I heard SVASE is very supportive to Entrepreneurs. I need to appraoch them too.)

3. Networking – CINA, SIPA, FWL(Place to meet other exciting women entrepreneurs, Fountain.biz etc. (Thanks for putting CINA here. Yes, we are great!)

Then her Step 8 is Network – Never eat alone, she asked us to wrote down 3 people you are going to meet for lunch in the next 2 weeks. For example:

1. BDM –

2. Entrepreneur –

3. Investor -

I like her way of organizing things.

The Step 9 is Review progress. Again, that’s the step missing in my life too. I always look forward, see my dreams far away in the sky. But I seldom look back see my foot prints. Sometimes, you really need to take a break, look back, and pat yourself on the back, say: Hey, you did a good job!

Step 10 is to Celebrate success, she suggested you can either go to a movie or dinner, or sing & dance to celebrate. Yes, holiday season is coming. We should celebrate now.

I felt this session was really useful, since she give us lots of practical tips on how to moving yourself to your goal without burn yourself out. The most important things are I like her state of mind. There are lots of things in her plate, but she takes it easy and do one thing at a time, yet enjoying her life.

In Q & A session, I asked Preethy one questions: How do you balance your work life.

She gave me an example, she has a dinner appointment on Thursday night, but suddenly she got a last minute assignment need to due on Friday. So she decided first to tell her friend that she need to move her appointment to some other days, then she went to yoga, to relax a little bit, then focused herself in the assignment until it is done.

It sounds a little bit easy, but I found her power of staying focus is very good. When she working on her assignment, she is 100% in it. After that, when she spend time with friend, she is 100% in it too. How many times when we eat, we are thinking about what we shall do next step. When we work, we think about what to do later on. Today, Preethy use a simple example taught us that: Focus in your current moment. Be 100% in it. It is amazing.

At the end of session, I told the group that, Although Preethy told us she still didn’t figure out what’s her goal in five years, but I am sure whatever her goal is, she will be there. Since from her eyes, I can see clearly her driven to succeed. And I belive she knows the way to get there already. Just add a little bit of time, she will reach her goal easily.

What a up-lifting session it is! Thanks Preethy for her time and I wish everyone read this blog can get the most out of it too. Let’s live 100% in the current moment and live our life to the fullest.