Kanta Garg

I would say it's because of the surroundings and environments that I grew up in. I grew up in a very financially insecure environment, and my biggest fear in life was unemployment. So financial security was my top priority at all times. Despite having a lot of passion for fashion and arts, I could never even think about taking that type of a risk that would put me in a financially insecure position. This is also another reason why I don't ever see myself starting my own startup - my brain is wired so I just cannot put myself in a financially insecure position. I need to be almost like a maniac when it comes to driving my success in my career. For me, money is the most important thing in my life, and anything and everything that I would need for myself requires money. That's probably my biggest motivator, but at the same time, thankfully, the industry I'm in, the way I'm making money and growing is also the way I'm learning a lot, and it kind of overlaps. The more I work on my career, the more money I'll make. The amount of certifications I'm doing, getting my master's, all of those things will help me in my career, which in turn will help me succeed from a financial perspective as well. I say it like this because my cousins, in contrast, grew up in extremely wealthy families - my uncles and aunts are all millionaires, so they never had to experience financial insecurity. Their approach to life is a lot more laid back and relaxed, and that's why they lack ambition, and that's probably why I have so much ambition.

I would say be an opportunist, be very observant and always on the lookout. You don't know where any opportunity could arise from, and have your goals in mind at all times. It's okay to have your goals change as you learn and grow and get to know more about yourself and what you want to see yourself doing. Anytime you meet anybody, or anytime you go anywhere, that could potentially end up becoming an opportunity that could help you get ahead in your career, so knowing and keeping that at the back of your mind at all times really helps. I have been able to find opportunities in relationships, friendships, just casually running into somebody in a cafe. People don't really - people kind of downplay it, and some people also look at that in a negative light, but networking and looking for opportunities is a very essential skill, especially for women. We need to make a mark, and we need to be able to learn to sell ourselves.

I would say the number one value would be ambition. I'm a big believer that ambition is extremely important. You cannot achieve anything without ambition. It's the big dreamers and the big believers that set them apart from just an average 9-to-fiver versus somebody who is the successful VP or director of that same company - believing in themselves, and that they wanted to get somewhere, and they were not satisfied with where they were. I feel like contentment is the enemy of ambition. But at the same time, gratitude is super important - being grateful for what you have. I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual, and I believe that God helps those who help themselves. Working hard but also being grateful for everything that you have at the same time, giving back to the community as often as you can. And also being multifaceted - I feel like we're all pretty multifaceted humans in general, but we are told that jack of all is a master of none. It's a very popular thing that people make us believe that you cannot be good at two mutually exclusive things. That's something that I completely think that we need to stop brainwashing people into believing. You can be a successful model and you can be a successful engineer both at the same time. You can be a fashion designer and you can be an AI specialist at the same time.