Growth Mindset + Life-long Learning -> Constant Integration

One of my high school math teachers asked the class one day if someone is intelligent if they have an answer to a complicated problem or someone is intelligent if they can grow and learn continuously, especially when they do not have the answer. We unanimously said that the individual who has the answer is intelligent. However, we were surprised and disappointed to hear that he said the opposite – it’s better to have a growth mindset than to know the answer. I’ll never forget that moment and realizing how powerful that was. I applied it then and found that it was okay to fail and not have the answer as long as I would work harder and find the answer later. This mind-blowing incident changed my perspective on failure and success permanently, which would help me in college and would open my mind to see and think beyond just knowing and memorizing answers or facts like a parrot. Thinking back to that moment, I realize that without a growth mindset I would not have pursued engineering, one of my Friday-Night Essences (I also enjoy reading and studying medicine and health), because I have to keep learning, growing, and challenging myself to learn more and integrate more concepts to solve more real-world problems as an engineer.

My growth mindset and involvement in high school robotics were two main factors that led me to pursue engineering in college. One of my professors mentioned that engineers need life-long learning to remain sharp, competitive, and successful by building and maintaining their technical skills and expertise in various topics and research topics. His words inspired me so much that I decided to pursue graduate school to learn more and dive deeper into the details. I enjoy growing, learning, and studying to solve problems and find new methods and approaches despite the looming and sometimes intimidating uphill hike because I need to keep making small steps forward by always having a growth mindset to learn, apply, integrate, fail, learn, apply, integrate, succeed, etc. Even though some problems can be very challenging and tedious, it is very rewarding and thrilling to find the solutions despite the one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards moments. I enjoy those eureka moments as I contribute new ideas and values to the body of knowledge after integrating and applying what I learned and studied.

I’m thankful for the words of wisdom, inspiration, and encouragement from my professor as well as the words from Mark Hamilton, Steve Rapella, Mike Ginther, and Daren Raskins. I’m looking forward to life-long learning and never-ending growth mindset in Neothink!