November 2023.
Last Thursday night, I was at the computer lab in the engineering building working to finish an assignment for my composites class. I submitted with just seconds left, knowing that I had an entire month to fix my work, and still to leave things up to the 36 hours before submission.
In the lab, I no longer felt like a specialist or a person filled with confidence - rather, I felt like someone who was insignificant, essentially ready to beg for help or assistance in any way to submit my assignment. I knew that the line was very thin, and that any imperfection in that very submission could very likely lower my grade to a sub-A grade.
My fellow colleagues in the lab were all working hard, from pulling late nights doing design team work or studying for their classes. At McGill, if you are part of a design team, the saying goes that you increases your chances of working at a prestigious internship, such as interning as Tesla (presumably in California). One of my friends, who was there that night working tirelessly on a design team, told me that his philosophy was to work hard and take things seriously. You can always postpone and say I always have next time, next term, next degree, next year, to be my best self. However, when someone from the same design team gets an offer at Tesla and you ask why, it's because they put in all the effort and hours to get there.
These were people who, against all odds, jump in and work. I recently read a strategy that Naval Ravikant employs on success: if Naval were to be reborn 1,000 times in varying locations of different socioeconomic status - as long as Naval was blessed with a healthy physical body and mind - Naval would want to work in way that he would be successful in 999 of them. Thus, for Naval, it's not the environment you begin in that defines you, but rather the systems and work ethic you put in to become successful.
I would often put myself on a pedestal since around I was 16, because of an award, opportunity or recognition that happened made me feel like I was entitled for success and all things shiny and glorious. However, you need to realize that as you grow, only you can save yourself. I believe that the universe has a way to treat you the way you treat those around you, though blindly waiting for opportunity, just like setting up an empty plate on a picnic table outside and waiting for food to fall from the sky (while it may happen, when a good-willed friend for family member brings you a meal), you can't keep relying on this sort of luck simply because you feel entitled that deserve such shiny things, because of some awards or early achievements that you just happened to receive.
I'm not trying to minimize these achievements - particularly when it comes to achievements that require prolonged effort and preparation (i.e. a sports tournament, a science fair experiment, or a community project among many other achievement) - these things likely meant that at one point in your past you put in the serious and dedicated work to get to where you want to be. However, just because you put in serious work X number of months (or years) ago doesn't mean that you are automatically entitled for every single success in the future.
So when you join the computer lab, your computer clock in the bottom-left corner of the LCD screen running past 11 PM, desperate for help as you are rushing to submit your assignment - you begin to realize your inherent value, and in some ways, your career flashes right there in front of you.
"You are not special." That was the headline that a person I admire had on their professional social media. Growing up I think self-belief is essential - as a matter of fact from a conversation I had with friends, successful entrepreneurs often have a unrealistically high density of self-belief, which is a major factor in their success - though I now realize that there is a difference between wishful thinking and putting in the work to go to where you want to be.
In that computer lab, as I felt powerless, you begin to ask: how can I create value? How can I be employable?
In this job market, why is it that >90% of my job applications get automatically rejected, while people with similar beginnings as I did are able to land high-paying or prestigious jobs? Or more closely, why is it that people who started university around the same time as I did are capable of easily solving any problem set or assignment that they pick up, while I struggle to maintain high-performing grades in my evaluations?
To the main point: you need to create value.
It's not enough to just understand the high-level workings of something - you need to be able to take a blank piece of paper, and derive the entire thought process, in order to really understand something in your field.
And so the question becomes, how can you create value?
Skill. As an engineering student, one defining skill is the ability to solve technical problems. All skills are valuable across fields, whether it's sales, visual design, specialized surgery procedures ... anything that adds value. Though as an engineering student you are by definition required to solve technical problems - not just plug numbers into an equation (anyone can do that), but to critically analyze a problem that you have never seen before, and come up with sound judgement on how to approach it, knowing that you carry immense responsibility in the decisions you take when you become a professional engineer.
Hard skills require work to be gained. There is no running away from such hard skill. And the faster you embrace the hours of hard, deliberate work, the faster you create value add for yourself.
Spaced repetition. Do things consistently, aim to achieve a floor every day - a bare minimum (i.e. solve one problem a day), but hit that minimum every single day. Spaced repetition will bring you far. As James Clear put it: you fall to the level of your systems.
Leave margins: build systems that are as fail-proof as possible. Even if you have the craziest week with everything going on, can your system still be robust enough to still deliver A-grade results?
Reduce friction. Make it easy to work on tasks.
Make things visual. Keep track of the work you do over the days - such as using the Calendar method or a spreadsheet logging your incremental work every day (like I recently started doing for job applications).
Your habits matter. That innocent slouch, or scroll of the news reel, will compound and define your quality of work.
The other question becomes how can you communicate your value to others?
Focus on the ask. Practice asking people for things, and offer some value in exchange. The majority of people will say no, but that's ok. Keep on asking, and you will get yes's that other people didn't get, because you persevered and kept on going.
Many fears are irrational: fear of success, fear of imperfection, fear of judgement, fear of making a mistake - 99.9% of the time I've realized that there fears are unjustified. Even if there might be the 0.1% outlier of times when your "ask" leads to a mistake: even though that stings and hurts, there will be 999 times more where you successfully pushed forward, and that is much, much more in your favor.
I think the bottom line comes to unpacking all the societal fluff of bevhaviours that are expected of you, and to reinvest your attention and work in marble-solid foundations that you truly want to build on. This involves being wary of entitlement or complacency: it is not the number of likes you get or the shiny dinners and lavish ceremonies that should be the primary indicator of your success, but rather your attention to being committed to discard all the societal fluff, forge the marble foundations on how you can provide value, and most importantly, treat the people around you with upmost respect, compassion and heart.
Because your life is your life. It's possible that there is an organic urge to conform to societal habits (such as the scrolling of the news feed or to do the infamous last-minute exam cram because it looks like a student rite of passage) simply because that is how societies work (it is also completely possible that my assumption is wrong). Though you need to realize that it is your life, and that you can actively do things at this very moment, by working hard and consciously, that will bring you where you want to be in the coming months and years.
As James Clear outlined it in Atomic Habits, results follow an exponential curve. Lifting weights for two days at the gym won't show much result, but lifting weights for two months will. If you were to stack a ten-dollar bill on top of another ten-dollar bill every single day, you won't become rich in a week, but by repeating the act, you will be at one point.
Be clear about what you want. It's ok if you don't know what you want and are exploring, but even in that case, be clear that what you want is "to explore and deliberately learn from every conversation or activity that you partake in."
This may sound harsh and direct, but reflecting on that late night in the computer lab feeling insignificant - one of many late nights I've spent on campus either in the library or the computer lab, fueled by a sandwich or muffin from Tim Hortons or the nearby convenience store - you realize that your self-image isn't the real you. To survive independently, you need to provide value - discard the societal fluff, and work hard on forging the marble foundation that will bring value. Work hard, and I have faith, that you (the reader) will go to the places that exceed the bounds of what you initially considered possible.
Just a supplementary note: I use the pronouns "you" and "I" interchangeably to refer to my own self in this text. Please do not take it as a directed observation to the reader, but rather as a self-reflection towards the author, by the author. The only exception is in the last paragraph, where I specify that "you" refers to the reader.
Last revision: November 2023.