Morgan Ellison

I would say that I contribute my success to my upbringing. I think that my parents did a really good job encouraging me to focus on the right things and guiding me in the direction, but allowing me to make my own path, but teaching me the importance of education and wherever your path wants to take you, you decide that's something you need to pursue. And then just always having that support system, no matter where I was, whether I was studying an hour and a half away from my hometown, or whether I was across the world, they always supported that decision and kind of saw my future for me before I could see it for myself. My older sister, who's an ER nurse, also pushed me to my limits at times, but she's always someone I look up to, regardless.

I think the best career advice that I ever received was that you are responsible for the journey that lies ahead. I think in the beginning of not just my career, but most people's careers starting out, you have this imposter syndrome where you feel like you have to say yes to everything, and you kind of don't have the strength to navigate your own path and to directionally align where you want to be. I kind of realized through working at EY that it's what you say yes to that helps make that journey. I said yes to running that campaign, I said yes to being involved in multiple things at work, and I really feel like that kind of drives what my day looks like and is carving that path out for my future. So I think that no matter how young you are, how old, you still have control over where that journey takes you.

I would say just keep striving forward and don't let any stereotypes knock you down. I feel like I was going into a pretty heavily male-dominated field, one being finance and then also consulting, and I think sometimes you may be looked at a little differently, but the only thing you can do is prove yourself through the work you provide and the effort you put in. And if you set a prize to go and get it, no matter what, you will get it.

I think the biggest challenges and opportunities right now are two-fold, and the answer could be the same. One would be just the world is changing with AI and everything becoming such a rapid advance. I feel like no industry can really catch up. It's moving faster than the pace of people are able to work. So while that's a challenge, it's brought a lot of opportunities to the business. Being able to help these companies expand on their capabilities to provide these AI solutions to customers has been huge for the consulting industry. And second, I would say, is the global regulations and policies right now, and really figuring out the way that the world works. I feel like it moves in a million different ways, and depending on different countries and where we're working, it depends what you have to do. Around the world has different developments than just the U.S., and so I think keeping that open mindset that even though I work in the U.S., there's millions of things going on that could still be beneficial that the U.S. isn't using is something that I think is a great opportunity that a lot of businesses could benefit from as well.

I think one that pops to the top of my head is integrity. I think that most things that follow that come with a good cause if integrity is behind it, whether that's the knowledge you bring to your team, or the family aspect that you bring, respect. Having integrity within every decision you make, I think, really helps further you along, not only in your career, but in life. I think people can easily tell when someone has malicious intent, and I think that in this world, the easiest thing you can do is to be nice and be respectful. So I think that's the value that I try to take in every workday, no matter how difficult the day may be, or if there's a hard day ahead. I think everyone's going through something, so if you can bring that respect and integrity to each conversation you have, I think that's a major game changer at the workplace.