When we talk about, “It’s a mindset” that’s really truly, what helped me! At that point in my life, it was all about my mindset.

I either accepted it or fought against it, and that was going to determine how long I was going to be able to make it here.

When I first started here at SUPERCHARGED one of the first things I had to do was work on a web design. And to be quite honest, I actually was not accustomed to working in a very quick, fast and flexible way. I typically like to take time with planning, and I was still always very organized, but I wasn’t used to whipping it up, so to say.

I remember initially feeling like, “This is just not the way I work. And I’m not comfortable with this kind of rate, or this expectation.” But I also quickly decided, I was going to: change my frame of mind around it. I decided okay, this is a skill I want to build anyway. This is a challenge that, maybe I fight against it because it makes me a little scared, makes me feel like I’m not going to be able to provide what they’re asking of me because I don’t have adequate time.

That’s the story I told myself. “I need adequate time to give the best.” I really had to fight against perfectionism. Like, “I don’t want to do things unless it’s perfect.” So this company… It wasn’t the first approach in terms of my thought process. But I decided: I want to learn, I want to grow, I actually want to be a lot quicker in the way I approach my design concepts, and I want to be able to meet deadlines faster.

So, I really just took that on as a challenge and I owned it. I think that taking on that mindset helped me to change, and to really embrace that fast and flexible approach. I had to let go, like really let go back then. To be honest, I had a way in which I worked, at at that time, In my mind that was the best practice, and in my mind that was the way we’re supposed to do things.

But, I was able to let go! I was able to let go, and adapt, because I realized every company you work for is not exactly the same. There I best practices, and we should always bring those best practices into everything we do, but we also have to be mindful of the culture of the company you’re working with. It’s different with each company.

I don’t take failure as the end of me, failure is just the next step to the next thing I can learn and do better next time.

This is a growth opportunity, because at the end, it doesn’t change the deliverable. Deadlines still need to be met, and things still need to be created. I’m still accountable for making it happen. So whether that’s me doing it myself, or finding team members who can handle that better than I can, it’s one or the other, and I think that’s the art of delegation.

Bringing on team members that you know; for instance, Renato is better at designing certain things than I am. So then by all means I want to equip him to actually handle that. If Chelsey is better at project managing in certain aspects, then I want to empower her to do that because that helps me do what I need to do better! That’s how I approach my work here and thus far it has been quite successful. I’m really just happy for the opportunity that Kwanza’s given me to grow in that way.

Jody Jacobs:

If you’ve got a five minute story, that five minute story can impact lives.

When I was, I want to say maybe like nine years old, I wanted to be on the baseball team. Fast forward, and I made it to my first game. This was the very first time, that I get to go out. So I’m out in left field, they throw the ball, and the ball comes my way. I’m like, Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh, God. Oh, it’s happening, It’s happening. It’s happening.

For me this was a real life movie moment. I literally closed my eyes, reached up in the sky with my glove, and was just like, Ohhh, I hope, I hope, I hope it, and guess what? The ball actually fell into my glove.

Now, the point of sharing that quick story is that for me, it was the first experience that I can remember, that I opened myself up to possibilities. I opened myself up to just, putting myself out there, and you know what, let’s just see, you know what, the ball might just fall into the glove.

There’s nothing but space and opportunity between you and your success. It’s really up to you to take advantage of that space and opportunity. Opportunities don’t create themselves, you have to go out there, like Kwanza says, you have to go out there and put the action behind that.

The three pillars that I had with that experience are faith, work ethic, and self assessment.

1. So, let’s talk about faith. Not just faith in a high power per se, but really you have to take ownership. If nobody’s going to do this, I have to be the person to do that. I have to believe in this more than anything.

2. Work ethic, like that goes without saying, if you don’t work towards something, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it all by yourself. But if you don’t put in the work, how can you rally others to want to work with you, or even work for you.

3. In terms of self image or self assessment, it goes back to either some of those soft skills, or it goes back to really just taking a look at how you act, how you interact. Some of those non verbals that you do, and taking an assessment of that whether you are just starting out in your career or whether you’re at the top of your career, it doesn’t matter.

But those particular things matter in terms of being not only a success in the world’s perspective, but being the success of you.

The other thing I think just overall for me, I always take on an experience of either… you win, or you learn. Like I’m not a loser, never have been, never will be. So you win or you learn.