Maya Merchant

I really have my parents to thank for that. They're both immigrants, and really emphasized growing up the value of education and of hard work. Kind of like I said before, my mom was very much about growth mindset. She cared way more about was I putting in the effort and doing things the right way, rather than just the letter grade I brought home. So that really shaped my take on things today.

I would say, just ask questions when you have them. When I started out, I was really afraid to admit I didn't know something, or ask questions about anything. The advice I got was, like, one, if you actually don't know something in the middle of a conversation, you should just find out as soon as possible. I used to think it would be better to wait for the conversation to be over, go back by myself, and then figure things out. But when you do that, you really just lose time, and you lose the ability to contribute in the moment. So you should just get it out of the way and figure it out. And another thing to it, it might be that your question actually exposes something that no one else has thought of, and you have an opportunity for your input to now become valuable. So just, you know, don't be afraid of how people are going to perceive you. Just ask that question, because if you always assume that everyone knows more than you, that's just gonna stay true.

Don't doubt yourself. It's literally never useful to do that. No one has ever been like, oh, thank goodness I doubted myself. You need to be your strongest believer and advocate, because if you're not that person, who else is gonna be?

I think the biggest thing is AI. You know, just figuring out how to use it and use it as a tool and use it effectively, it's definitely going to change the way we do things, so the faster you can get ramped up on that, the better.

I would say focusing on effort over outcome, that's something that my mom really emphasized with me growing up. Having that growth mindset is so important, because if you're just focused on the outcome itself, it's really easy to burn yourself out. Focusing on the process and the work ethic that you're putting in is really a better path for growth. And then personally, I would say, you know, who you are when you're facing adverse circumstances is just who you are always. When you're facing adverse circumstances, when you're stressed, that's when it's most difficult to be the person you want to be, but that's when it's most important to do that, because that really is the measure of who you are as a person.