Heidy Sinaga

I love learning new things in the areas I'm proficient in, and I'm a big fan of Kaizen and continuous process improvement. I learned about process improvement back in the early 2000s, and it's become like blood to me - it's just part of who I am now. In my professional life, I always come with that package of continuous improvement, and in my personal life, I guide my kids to be like that too. I can see the results in my personal life, where my kids have reached what they dreamed of. At the beginning, they were always scared of having a big dream, and I told them, don't be scared, because if you do a baby step and continuously improve every little thing that you are doing, you will be there. That's how I've been living, and I think it's a good formula. It will not be one million dollars if you're still missing one cent, one penny - you just have to take those baby steps.

The best career advice I ever received came from my mentor, who was my boss back when I was working for Mattel. She said that being a good leader is not only being smart at what you're doing, but being smart at creating a successor for yourself. Over my time, I've really always created successors for me, and I feel that is a very good value to me. The company and the corporate world can't depend on myself only, but also on the team and teamwork. I think creating a successor - having good knowledge and good right hands - is a very valuable thing for the path of your career.

Being precise and consistent is important. But adapting to changes is also another important tool, because the world is changing. Adapt to new technology, adapt to new concepts, adapt to new culture. Those are the things that bring you up to a higher level in your career. If you stay stagnant and stay in your own comfort zone, you're not going anywhere - you just stick there. I think the comfort zone should be avoided.

My big challenge right now is growing my business. It's just a baby business, but I have this philosophy of baby steps. Right now, my revenue is not what I earned in my last employment, so I've set up a budget and forecast for myself - that's my culture of doing things, even in my personal business. My big challenge is to grow the business, grab more customers, and be a good accountant to retain the customers, because not all accountants are good. As for opportunities, I think in America there are a lot of opportunities. It's a land of opportunities. A lot of new businesses are coming in, more educated people are coming in. All of these things are potential clients to me. I just have to build my network and participate on professional platforms to be engaged and be able to grab all of this opportunity out there.

Reach the dreams as high as possible, and let the sky be only the limits.