They Told Me to Keep It Small. I Didn’t.

Do Not Let Other People’s Fear Become Your Limit.

In achieving your vision, you have to be determined enough to keep going even when the voices around you are telling you to think smaller.

When I conceived the idea for the CUALA Career Fair, one of the key people I reached out to advised me to keep it lean. In their mind, that meant keeping the entire event to about 100 people.

I understood where the advice was coming from. There was a need to be careful, count the cost and make sure we were not taking on more than we could handle. But that was not the vision I had.

I wanted to create something that brought employers, graduates and professionals into the same room and created real opportunities. So I listened to the advice, but I did not allow it to redefine what I believed we could achieve.

I chose to give the vision everything I had.

Eventually, almost 700 people attended the Career Fair. We had close to 20 organizations involved and coverage from multiple media houses. Looking back, I am reminded that people will always have an opinion about what is possible. Sometimes it comes from experience. Sometimes from caution. Sometimes from their own perception of what can be achieved.

You have to learn to listen without losing your conviction.

This does not mean ignoring advice or refusing to change course when the facts demand it. It means knowing when the advice is helping you build better and when it is simply making you think smaller.

Your external voices should never become louder than your internal conviction.

If you believe in the vision, do the work. Count the cost. Adjust where necessary. But do not let someone else's fear become the limit of what you are willing to pursue.

Your determination to succeed must be louder than the voices telling you it cannot be done.