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You know those moments
Don't you when decision feels like it's everything like a complete fork in the road
Or maybe you've ah chased what looked like the perfect path got all the external stuff lined up
But then wondered does this actually bring any you know in her peace
Uh de're doing a deep dive into the journey of a woman were calling see really remarkable story
She's a product manager at google now
But the way she got there uh definitely not straight ght see we to find that peace from this really bold gamble
She made back in high ld gamcess all the way through pretite universities the corporate world
Our source here is a pretty revealing interview
Or see reflects out these these key moments and our mission today it's not just to tell her story
It's more about digging out those um nuggets of wisdom from her experience insights into how we navigate big life choices
How our ideals kind of shipped over time and yeah
How to find that peace
When there's so much pressure from the outside so let's jump in yeah
What's really compelling about he's narrative
I think is how just blows up that idea of a single linear path to coron qute over time
Today
好的好的
Her life really shows that growth often comes from these like courageous turns off the main road
Unexpected discoveries it's almost a master class and adapting
Your game plan without losing sight of well your core values
That's a really great way to put it a master class and adapting
And it all kicks off at this incredibly high stakes decision
She made way back gized so picpicture
This she's been
She sees a science student in ananging
And she's been really involved in momodel u since junior or you know the been n simulation where students debate global issues
She already has the strong drive to see the world right
But that created a conflict
Exactly her frequent absence traveling to honggk for sat tests going to model un events
It put her on a collision course with her teachers
They basically gave her the stark automatum commit one hundred percent to the outacting
Which is china's huge life defining college entrance exam superintense totally commit to that or completely abandoned and focus only on applying to us university
It isn't either wow and choosing to skip the gakkao mean
We can't overstate how mass of that is as see herself said later it was quite risky especially with no guarantee of getting into aus school right
No safety it none at all most people probably would have said just do the gakkw first
Then worry about the us later maybe take a gap er something
But she didn't
She chose to fight for it
As she put it to go all in on the us applications
And what's really interesting
Here's her parents reaction
They offered support encouragement
But they didn't tell her what to do
They basically said follow your own in her thoughts
第一个
What does that kind of parental approach do for someone psychologically well
It's likely foster a really strong sense of um self fficficacy
You know the beliefs that she acactually shape her fufuture
Did that complete locus of control
But you also have to wonder
Did that complete autonomy also create its own kind of pressure
Like i have to make this work now because i chose this unusual path
That's a really insighttful point
The flip side of freedom
So she takes this massive leap
Skips the gocoa
是的 对的
And it pays off
She manages to secure a full scholarship to aus liberal arts college
Through some special partnership program amazing result really against the odds
And then she makes another interesting choice
Despite being a science student
She picks this liberal arts college over say a big university known for science
That's not the typical al is it no definitely not especially for uh a science student from china aiming for the us back then most we rely gravitate towards the big research universities maybe engineering programs
So why liberal arts
She said she wanted the smaller classes
A better teacher
Stuto ratio
She wanted real cultural emersion
And crucially she wanted something designed to in her words forced me out of my comfort zone
She speaks to that adventure respirit again okay
So this desire to be pushed out of her comfort zone
It leads something unexpected the liberal arts cricuum
You know how they often have requirements
Science
Social science
Humanities
You have take courses in each and a big foundation
And she was really really reluctant to take art history for her humanities requirement
She apparently said something like i really don't want to learn this
I feel so tired just resistance
Uh
I think many students can relate to that feeling about required courses outside their main interest hototally
But her advisor basically insisted push her
She said
Told her you must go
Or it won't graduate
Sometimes you need that external push i guess what happened
Let me guess she loved it
She had a huge aha moment
She said art history truly opened a brand new world for her
Wow Okay
Tell me more she realized that art history is human history
It gave her this whole new lands on understanding human society culture like that thing sanantastic
It transformed a requirement into a revelation
Exactly
It really shows how sometimes the things we fight against end up being the most it really formed of experiences
If it probably had moments like that right
She said you dreded
Turned out to be amazing
Absolutely
And it stuck with her didn't it even though she majured elsewhere yeah she ended up majoring and enconomics and environmental science
But she said she still loves visiting museums and appreciating art
Today that reluctant course had a lasting impact
So she's navigated high school pressure embrace the breath of liberal arts
Um what comes next well fast forward to senior year of college
She's facing another massive decision
Another fork in the road
She get accepted into the harvard kennedy school for a masters in public policy and international affairs
Prestigious stuff
Oh
Harvard okay
And at the same time
She gets a job offer from a top to consusulting m
Oh
The classic dilema academic deversus the real world corporate later
And
And remember her background
She done internships with the you work with microcredit in benglash sh
But the icnational focused ideidealistic stuff
The micropaath ath seemed like natural fit for those early ideals
It did
But then there were other voices
Her then boyfriend who is get her husband apparently encouraged her not to be too idealistic
He suggested she should go see the real world first interesting
What about family in friends huge pressure
There she wpeople were like it's harvard weren't 't going
Or you crazy
I can't imagine the illure of that name is power totally
But
But m makes another surprising call she decides against harvard
Ok
What was her reasonal experidid
It was incredibly pragmatic actually
She figured look if i could get into harharvard
Now i can probably get in again later
After i get some real world experience
And she felt she needed to see the world of capitalism
As she put it understand how that side of things work that that marks a really significant shift doesn't it the emergence of a more maybe pragmatic idealist i think so and her time and consulting really solitified that shift i so
She said she realize preprety quicicly that pure idealalm m doeswork work not just having slogans like we want to sathe world
Oh
This leads if you don't understand the practical mechanics of how things get done
Yeah ideals need legs not need a strategy that functions in the world
As it is not just this prrealialiit work exactly
And this realization let her to eventually pursue an mba for esd work not the public policy degree
She initially aimed for uh okay
Business inset of policy school okay make sense given that realization
And this leads to what i think is one of her ers profound insisits from from interview view
She basically concluded if you want to save the world
You have to follow the rules of this era and in this world money talks wof that's pretty blunt
It is
But she elaborate
She says you need to give everyone in this world
The right incentive to do the right thing um and herve you money is often the biggest most universal incentive
It's a perspective
They can make pure idealists uncomfortable
Maybe
But it acknowledges the reality of the systems we operate
And you have to understand the motivations
The incentives
If you actually want to influence out
Comes on a large scale
Right
It's not about abandoning your values maybe
But about being smartic and strategic
And how you perursuthem like mamaking finanalism
Streetsmart
You could say ah ah like
Like that so really mamayou
You think esn't it
But you sometimes so focused on what of our goals
That we forget to really analyze the how within the existing world
It's a critical question
See didn't give up on wanning to make an impact
She just found a different anmart
Exactly she's now working unclimate change and sustainable energy using tools like impact intive applying that financial enens achihive posisitive environmental comes still idealistic goals
But a very pragmatic approach
Approaching it from a more objective rational standpoint leveraging those incentive she talked about
And she fully acwledges her path wasn't direct
She calls it a journey
That many detors and trial and error
But she sees is just yeah part of life right not failures
But learning experiences
Sercisely okay
So see has navigated these big external choices adapted her idealism found pragmatic ways toward
Towards her goals
You think ok
She's figured it out
Success unlocked
But there's another layer to her story isn't there
There is even while achieving all the external success
You know the resume that look shining to everyone else with the top companies
The degrees
嗯
Internally she was struggling uh what kind of struggle
She describes experiencing frequanxiety
Ty this persistent feeling of being not good enough she felt
She was too easily swayed by others opinion about her choices
Her career
Her life
So it disconnect between the hweard appearance of success
But that internal reality exactly she said she lacked a stable self cognition
A firm sense of her own self worth and identity independent of external validation
That's a really crucial peace
Ce can climed the latter ticck all the boxes
But if that internal foundation isn't solid it all feels precarious and this realization
This focus on the in her self but a really ultimate take away
But hard one wisdom as she called it wanded that look like for her building
That foundation did she pinpoint
When it became critical
She mentioned it wasn't one single moment
But something she built slowly
It really came into focus after the susuferering setbacks at work right those moment of adversity often forced inresspection
Don't they
They do it wasn't the things were going perfectly
But when she face challenges and pressure
That she realized the need for this inner strength
And what does that inner strength do according to her
She described it as the ability to digest external pressures
Work stress
Difficult situations
Criticism
Without letting them poisoning your whole state of mine like building an interternal buffer
Like mabe a filter er yeah actly tly interinternal resilience that keeps your core sense of self intact regardless of the external noise or turbulence
And they kind of wisdom
That kind of peace
But it just handed you
It sounds like it was forrenthrough experience definitely forged in in firfire could say it
It really puts things acperspective
You know in a world so obsessed with the next achievement
The next wrong on the latter
The real work might be challnal building that resilience
That peace
How do we actually do that
That's the million dollar questionism
It is and sehis journey doesn't give easy answers
But the highlights
The profound importance of asking the is so wrapping this up sees story is just fascinating it's such a powerful example of embracing bold choices
Even the really rescuy ones and adapting that shift from pure idealism to uh pragmatic action is key learning how the world works actually change it right
But maybe the most important lesson is internal that realization about needing a strong and stable in our foundation
Absolutely that seems to be the ultimate anor
She found the thing that allows you to navigate all the external stuff that successes the sabbacks with a degree of equinmity
It suggests that maybe the biggest transformations aren't always the ones people see on your resume
Yeah
Theare the ones that shake how you experiencin response to the world from the inside out
So as we finish this deep dive mabe a thought for you the listener to take away
Reflecting on sees journey think about your own goals
Your own challenges is are some kind of incentive
Maybe financial
Maybe social
Maybe something else that you haven't fully considered in how you're proking things and perhahaps more founounathat the deliately cultivating that sense of interpeace
That stable interfoundation tions y talks about is how you pursue those goals
How might that shift more definition of success
Itself
