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As we enter the final week of Spring 2019 finals, we are all looking for sources of motivation to get us through. Bentley’s TEDx LIMITLESS Conference, held this past month, had 8 motivated, amazing speakers, all of which are connected to the Bentley community either as students, alumni, or professors. Read up on a brief summary of each talk below:
Deepak Chhugani, Class of 2014 Alumni
If you’re going to “go big or go home”, you have to be prepared to go home. With every big, new, seemingly outrageous idea, you have to be prepared for setbacks, or a complete backfire altogether. But, where there’s a will, there’s a way, but sometimes, that way is drastically changing course, or going back to the drawing board. Deepak’s stories with emphasis on the pain and sacrifices one has to make in trying to start something new is important for college students to hear. Thinking big is easy in our shoes, but hard to realize the severity of the obstacles until they’re at our doorstep.
Elisa Vincent, Adjunct Lecturer in Management Department
We need limits to survive and come into our best selves. We need to be open to seeking help and support, create new goals, pay it forward, and produce our best work by knowing your limits, but push up against them. Although our society, especially college life, always ask more of you, it’s important to be selective and maintain your limits. At Bentley, it not uncommon to see students killing themselves to get that better grade, join that extra club, or get that highly coveted job. Elisa is that beacon telling all of us to take a step back, and realize by doing this, we’re not giving our best anywhere.
Isha Joshi, Class of 2021 Finance and Marketing Student
Knowing your why ignites your what. As we all are in the midst of finding our path and place in this world, we all have to realize our strengths, what makes us unique, in order to understand our purpose and how we can contribute to the world in a meaningful way. Isha is able to promote self-growth in a casual, informal way, which is important in an environment of self-discovery, but also a social pressure to blend in. Thinking about the question, “What’s your sparkle?”, is Isha’s unique way of getting people to think about themselves in a positive light, without having to be sitting in a psychology course.
Nikki Innocent, Class of 2007 Alumni
We are all working to fit in, every day, with almost everything we do. This feeling of safety we are all working to attain, is simply not sustainable, and is in fact, suffocating. Being who we are and expressing our individuality is important to finding our most unique and energizing strengths and passions. As an alumni of Bentley, simply just expressing herself in this way and exhibiting a career and passion not many Bentley students have in their heads is breaking the “box” most of us have confined ourselves to, enlightening us on all the possibilities of life after Bentley.
Jim Pouliopoulos, Senior Lecturer in Marketing Department
Contrary to popular belief, there IS a happiness formula. Not everything you’re good at, is something you’re passionate about or would be happy living an entire life doing. Happiness is dictated by your tribe, talent, and thrill. You are responsible for your own happiness: be strategically selfish, and you’ll find your happiness levels rising. A strength Jim brings to the classroom, as many students may know, is his relatability. He brings this same angle to his talk, which is extremely engaging to students and keeps them tuned in, listening, and thinking about how they can apply strategic selfishness to their own lives.
Raveena Agawane, Class of 2019 Marketing Analytics Graduate Student
We all should have our own definition of success. Whether you grew up with pressure from family, friends, role models, or none at all, each and every one of us first responsibility is to ourselves, and setting our own goals, dreams, and aspirations. Societal pressures should not confine you, and each experience you have makes you, you. Raveena’s story of hitting roadblocks on her career hunt is aspiring to students, as I am sure we have, are, or will experience these of our own, where plans just don’t work out, or change unexpectedly, but everything we each face, even if we don’t necessarily like it in the moment, will play a major role in where and who we are.
Bethany Elwell, Class of 2019 Marketing Student
We as inhabitants of this Earth have to do better about our massive production of waste. But, the solution is not simply “reduce, reuse, recycle”, or these popup movements like elimination of plastic straws. We have to change our mindset to one of which that is constantly asking the questions, “What can I do with this ‘useless’ material? How can I make it something productive?”. This question isn’t just for those passionate about sustainability; no matter what career field you have, or passion you pursue, you will encounter waste. And learning how to turn our waste into an opportunity is what will really change the world. Bethany does a great job in presenting a topic that’s a passion of hers as a topic that concerns everyone, not just the “tree-huggers” or those who are already working to live sustainably. By presenting the issue as one that requires a changed mindset in everyone, rather than a one-size-fits-all, singular solution, and how this mindset benefits businesses, which is a key interest of all of us here at Bentley, she gets the audience thinking, engaged, and motivated to join her in doing our part to change the world.
Carlos Gutierrez, Class of 2018 Alumni
Using the marketing principals we’re taught here at Bentley, we can use these same steps to understand other new events and issues, the same way new brands or products are understood. Raising awareness is the first step to being able to change someone’s perspective and see something new from a different angle, allowing others to understand the whole picture. Again, Carlos does an excellent job using his advertising knowledge he learned at Bentley to apply it to a broader issue, immigration, and the hostile light in which it has been portrayed in America recently.
To see the full Ted talks, click here.
