by Allan Gonzales
Humility is a lesson that we can all learn as society when you consider that not everyone has the same privilege or opportunities as the other. This became crystal clear to 2015 Future Aces Scholar Katie Chen through her experience working in various countries.
“There’s a lot of things that one takes for granted growing up in a certain environment or, growing up in a certain culture and you go to a different place and all of these things you’ve taken for granted are not the case.”
Growing up as a Chinese immigrant in Toronto, Chen’s perspective broadened when she left consulting at McKinsey & Company and embarked on a career with Save The Children and The Behavioural Insights Team. Her work took her to various countries around the world and that’s where she developed “this deep fulfilling sense of purpose, which [she] didn’t feel earlier on.”
“It really is a lesson in humility,” Chen reflects, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the privileges we often take for granted. From access to essentials to the sense of security, Chen‘s travels have shined a light on the diverse perspectives of reality from around the globe. Yet, under all the differences, she finds a common ground in the experiences we share as a community – laughter, connection, and the simple joys in life.
“It’s really given me a good dose of humility and perspective, but it’s also really given me hope about humanity as a collective. I think despite the differences, there are also so much we have in common with people all over the world.”
Chen continues to embody the Future ACES Creed and still resonates deeply with her till this day. Particularly the attributes of Service, Achieve, Attitude and Courage.
Service
On a micro-level she feels it is important to mentor the younger generation to share her expertise and advice, and to also volunteer. Whereas on macro-level, she felt that switching from the private sector to the social sector would help meet her goal of closing the global opportunity gap. She expresses this deep-seated belief: “This sort of service to humanity and service to people around the world is something that I really believe in.”
Courage
She believes it took courage when she uprooted herself multiple times to live and work in different countries. She believes that experiencing different cultures firsthand is essential to effectively support communities. She considers that these leaps of faith were fundamental to her personal and professional growth, stating, “It requires a little bit of courage to make that first jump outside of your comfort zone, but after that you sort of realize the amount of growth that comes from it, and it becomes a lot easier to make subsequent moves outside of your comfort zone.
Achieve
Chen views achievement as a process of dreaming and progressing throughout life’s journey. “I’ve always loved, I’ve always been a dreamer,” she states. She clarifies, “It’s not about necessarily like meeting a goal and then just being, okay, I’ve achieved. But how do you sort of continue to push and continue to dream to do more.”
Attitude
She firmly believes that “attitude” centers on kindness, both towards oneself and others. She emphasizes that self-kindness is the foundation for extending kindness to those around us. As she states, “I think that when you have this attitude of kindness towards others. It just makes life so much more sunny and positive for both yourself and for other people.”
Chen may still be early in her career, she has very learned valuable lessons throughout and has three key pieces of advice for aspiring leaders:
1. Find the mission that you are passionate about. She emphasizes the importance of knowing one’s passion and that it may take time while connecting it with her own experience of not finding her path in International Development until her third year of undergrad. She shared that it took a couple of years after graduating finally found her career path. She states, “Once you find that mission, I think it makes life so much more meaningful.”
2. Find the right mentors. She highlights how “the right mentors can really help you think on how you think about your personal life, how you think about your professional life, and how you think about the type of leader you’d like to be.” She credits mentors with playing a critical role in shaping who you are and the leader you can become, both personally and professionally.
3. Take risks. “A life that is comfortable is also a life that is unremarkable”, she says. Stressing that taking risks is necessary to develop the capacity to grow, think bigger and effect change.
Chen’s work is driven by a profound sense of purpose: to create opportunities so that people can thrive in their own communities. Inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, she finds deep fulfillment in contributing to something larger than herself.
“It’s much more meaningful to dedicate or think about other people than to think about yourself.”