Marisa Parikh

I attribute my success to my parents. Both my parents have immigrated here from India. If it wasn't for their sacrifices, I wouldn't even be able to be on the phone with you right now. I am everything I am because of my parents. My parents are my inspiration. My parents are my motivation. My parents push me, they motivate me, they inspire me. I would never be the Marissa I am today if I did not have my parents supporting me and motivating me through the entire process. When I look at their sacrifices, I don't think a thank you will ever be enough. The things my parents sacrificed in order to come to this country and build a life for me where I'm able to seek out wonderful opportunities like this one is something that's just completely invaluable. I would attribute every success to my parents.

The best career advice I've ever received is to take risks. I think oftentimes, being a young woman, I struggle with a lot of fear when it comes to submitting applications or chasing opportunities, because I think I've always played with thoughts of, maybe I'm not good enough, or there are better people applying. The best advice I would give is just to take the risk and do it. You'd rather apply, get rejected, rather than just not apply at all. Putting your best foot forward with the most confidence in yourself and pursuing those opportunities, no matter what comes with you. Don't be afraid of being rejected.

The advice I would give to young women who are entering my industry would be to remain confident. Your path is not linear, and there will be times where you will run into hurdles. There will be times where you run into moments where you might be confused on your path, or you might not know where to go, and I think the most important thing is to remain confident, and to believe that you can do this. And to remember to always stay true to yourself, and to remember that you have to believe in yourself. The belief you have in yourself is gonna be what drives you there. In order to achieve great things, you have to believe that you can do that. And you have to trust yourself. And be your most confident self, and just pursue those opportunities without looking back. And just remember that you are everything that you say you can be. And you can be everything that you want to be. But there's only one person that needs to believe that, and it's yourself.

A challenge that I find myself encountering from time to time, especially within my field, is sometimes I run into moments where there's a concept, or there's something that I haven't heard of, or I just don't know about. And I think especially being so young, I think that there are often times where I walk into rooms, and people are discussing things that I've just never heard of before. A challenge that I've encountered related to that is having to come to the understanding that it's okay to not know everything all the time. Accepting that has been so powerful for me. Claiming the fact that, yeah, I don't know this, and that's okay, because if I knew everything, then I wouldn't learn anything. The point of this process, and the point of all this is growth and to learn. Appreciating that sometimes you might not know everything, and looking at it as more of a blessing than it is a curse is one of the biggest challenges that I've had to overcome in my career so far, but that challenge has only made me stronger.

The most important value that matters to me most within both my work and my personal life would be remaining true to myself. If I'm pursuing the work that I'm doing, I want it to be something that I'm passionate about, something that I love, and something that I care about. The intention that you work with, and the intention, the way you act and do things in your personal life is so important, and I think having those passionate, those healthy, and those wonderful intentions, when you put your effort into something, I think that's what shapes your outcome. The best value that I would say that I have in both my personal and professional lives would be staying true to my passions and my beliefs.