Sam Thiara: Mindsets & Life Lessons for Success (TedX Speaker, Author & SFU Professor)

[Music] welcome to the Illumina Universe podcast the cast get it the cast my name is Alina and I'm the founder of illuminate where we Mentor job Seekers and help employers to Fast Track their business goals I interview a celebrity cast of incredible individuals who have truly inspiring careers we're talking about their work Journey the process of taking the leap to create a life and career they love and what happens when they push aside their fears and doubts to unleash their fullest potential today we speak with Sam Tiara who teaches at the Beatty School of Business

at Simon Fraser University and he was also the founder and chief motivating officer at ignite dream coaching and Consulting a platform that engages with audience to Define their past Sam has completed his Master's in leadership from University of Exeter in England and a certificate in higher education from Harvard University he has authored two books one on storytelling and the other a travel Memoir about his journey to India to finding his ancestral roots with a date he has also spoken at two different tedx conferences well Hi Sam welcome to the podcast our first question for you

is share with our audience where you are presently and the journey you've been on sure absolutely I think the best way for me to describe my journey is where I am presently in the past think of it as structured and organic and where I am right now is a very organic environment where I have the opportunity to pick and choose what is it that really resonates and is important to me so I have multiple projects that I'm working on that I'm very fulfilled by but it wasn't as simple as that I mean I think for

me it was a trajectory that is very common as a narrative that many people have experienced and lived I mean I'm in post-secondary you know University now you know trying to decide what is it that I'm going to do when I graduate and I graduated with a degree in business and political science and you know what what a great combination I mean who's going to be lucky to get me so as I cross the stage shook the hands of the dignitaries at graduation I walked off the stage and it felt like a a giant door

slammed behind me and there was no handle everything familiar to me was behind that door and now I have to transition and get a job well I did what most people would do you start applying for jobs so I remember shortly after graduating I applied for 12 jobs and I thought okay who's lucky to get me two weeks later a letter arrived back then you know there was no internet you actually have to write letters and I remember a letter arrived and I was like okay and I opened it up and it was from one

of the 12 companies and it said sorry we don't have a job for you and good luck and I thought okay you're not lucky it's okay I've got 11 more letters and I'm going to send three more out today so I sent them out and Jessica was interesting it was literally like the tide the more letters I sent out the more rejections came back to the point where I have 86 rejection letters these are 86 rejection letters it literally is the size of a brick weighs as much as a brick and I have no idea

why I kept all these rejection letters as they came in because every single rejection letter was a nail in my coffin of self-confidence and the narrative had switched from who's lucky to get me to am I lucky to get a job well my first job I have finally somebody gambled on me and I got it so business and political science one would think okay he gets an entry-level government job yes I got an entry-level government job I was a janitor in a hospital mopping floors and emptying rubbish bins because it was part of the government

employees union but instead of looking at it from a negative standpoint I said what am I going to learn from this there are three valuable lessons that I carry forward to this day that helps me who I am today the first lesson my father said I don't care what you do you make sure you do the best job possible because your reputation is on the line I carry that mentality in anything and everything I do second valuable lesson there were times I would get on the elevator with nurses doctors and administrators and I was ignored

because you're not a professional I know what it feels like to be ignored and this is why over the years I've I talked and I continue to talk to everybody because everybody's got a story and the third valuable lesson is rather than looking at it as a negative situation I went in with this growth mindset of what can I learn from being a janitor like in other words I went with a curious curious mind and I went in and I embraced it and it taught me that in anything and everything I do in life go

in with a curious mind because there are lessons to be learned I think what happened though is that eventually you know you you once that Rocky start happens technically you hit sort of that career rock bottom I then started to progress saying okay whatever I was prepared for I was ill-prepared and then eventually I got a retail job and a management role didn't like it then I got a corporate job working for the provincial government you know in the Insurance Corporation of BC I could do the job but it wasn't me and it my career

felt like an ill-fitting suit I could wear it but it just didn't fit I could do the job but it just didn't fit that's where the transition happened when I started reflecting on instead of just jumping to another job I stopped I started reflecting introspection and I said but what's important to me what is it that I want as I move forward and I came up with five things that I decided I wasn't I was not going to compromise and when I did that the job I was holding hit zero out of five but then

I thought okay if I'm going in another Direction what is it that's when I came up with the job that hit five out of five and it just all of a sudden wasn't a job or career it was fulfillment and that's always guided me those five core elements and I've changed them over the years but what it's enabled me to do is always compare contrast to basically say the opportunities that now emerge do they line up with the five things that I'm not willing to compromise and that's enabled me to go from a structured organization

a structured career into something that's organic and that's very fulfilling now So based on your journey would you say it was more planned or organic I think initially it started out planned and you know just that whole Narrative of structure and and I see this in so many of the people I mentor and Coach is that laid out plan but then it eventually it's what the moment it shifted to organic it suddenly made sense and it goes back to this idea that goals and and you know having goals and incentives or goals and you know

objectives in life whatever made me realize is that I don't have goals and people thought oh my gosh he's he's aimless no I have these intentions five things that I'm not willing to compromise and the reason for me and I'm not saying if you have goals you're wrong but it's just another perspective because I find for me goals are very limiting goals you're on this Pathway to say point A to point B and if an opportunity emerges that doesn't line up with your goal do you give up the goal or the opportunity it's very absolute

instead any opportunities that come I compare it to those five things I'm not willing to compromise and that's the part that for me has enabled me to go from a you know which initially was a very structured way of looking at things to something that's much more organic now so how does you realize your journey how did all of this happen you know one of the most important things which I think we don't do is reflect and realize that I think what happens is we get so caught up in the everyday routines that we forget

that you know let's take a moment to reflect on the journey is this something I'm supposed to do on purpose so I believe that the importance of all of this is to actually take the time to reflect and introspect where you are in your life and journey and I remember a quote that is you know in order to Vision the future reflect on the past while you stand on the crack that's the present and that quote I think is really important because in order to Vision your future you do need to reflect on your past

what courses did I do that I liked what what you know the jobs that I've held in the past what did I learn from them and that's the that's the process that one can do to to support and help them in that Journey but I think reflection is one of the most important pieces that that might be missing but that we need to incorporate into our into our life and would you say that your education played an important role in discovering your journey it did education I think is I think that again when we look

at education I look at two words knowledge and wisdom knowledge is what you would get out of a textbook knowledge is what you would get out of a lecture and you just absorb it but you just never really apply it the application of that is where once you start applying it and using it and playing with it it now becomes wisdom so think of it this way someone can have knowledge but lack wisdom so it doesn't mean that that's bad it's just it's just it's just one component so whatever you are learning whether it's in

school whether it's a new process at work whether it's you know advancing your own personal life whatever you learn apply it it's only when I started applying things that I realized it wasn't just a matter of absorbing it and learning something how am I going to use it and how is this going to help me in the future now I have a very different question for you Sam can you share a setback that you've encountered oh many setbacks in life I also wanted to just Define there's a setback and there's failure I think we use

the word failure far too often and two it's just we throw it around failure is final setback it's the exact same thing set back you get back up dust yourself off learn from the experience and you move even stronger I mean setback for me is the fact that you know there are times where maybe I've applied for a position that I really thought that I should that I should get and that you had the qualifications instead of dwelling on a setback what I do is I learn from it and I say okay so that didn't

materialize that didn't happen what do I knew what do I need to do that maybe elevates me to The Next Step for example when I transitioned from ICBC in claims for example into road safety it wasn't an easy smooth transition that I was just suddenly gifted this position I mean when I decided to go forward into this area of road safety because it really did align with who I was I mean I have no experience so I contacted the person in the department it was like a Friday he said Tuesday come down to this park

I've got a display would love to talk to you about what I do I thought great okay I'll go down there and you know I started learning about road safety and the more I learned the more I really thought yeah this is something that really resonates and eventually he said look I think what would be great is I've got another event coming up in the future but I I it's a couple of events but I can't do them both do you want one of them and I said oh absolutely then you know I kept doing

these events and helping in the road safety area and as a volunteer and my Senator manager came up he said man I've noticed that you've been out there doing community relations I really want to do that for office do you want to leave this and I said oh absolutely but here's this it the thing is there was noise people said do you realize people are using you you're not going to get this job and I remember saying but I'm having fun so I carried on and you know what after eight months of all of this

volunteer work not asking for what's in it for me a job came up and I applied for it and you know what I didn't get it and everybody suddenly said when are you going to learn you're not going to get in they don't hire from from inside it's outside I persisted because I knew number one I was having a lot of fun number two it was like somewhere along the way I know things are going to change for me and after 14 months of doing this volunteer work and really enjoying myself I got in and

everybody said oh my gosh how did you do that the challenge is they never see the journey they don't see you working in the trenches they only see the end result which is the success Embrace that Journey embrace the fact that there are going to be setbacks there are going to be successes it's all part and parcel and it goes back to one of my favorite quotes which is obstacles are the necessary bricks on the road to success do not fear the obstacles embrace them because that's where the growth happens and it's all part of

the whole process of getting where you need to go what are some tips and ways that you overcame the obstacles with I think you know having this resilient attitude of you know I think sometimes people just will try it once and they're like not going to work forget it this isn't going to work I actually thrive in ambiguity and uncertainty I love that space and I think for me it's building that resilience to say I am going to persevere I am going to carry forward now maybe the pathway does change but equally at the same

time I think what's really important is this idea of persistence and resilience and and listening to The Voice Within as opposed to the noise around you that's what's going to carry on and keep you going what would you say are some essential skills that you think individuals Thrive and there's definitely skills and abilities that I think are are really important it also depends on the the type of position I think clear communication is one of the critical components in that clear communication means expressing yourself but equally at the same time being open to to the

to the conversations the art of conversation is equally important as well so clear communication conversation are skills that are important it's also about having a realistic attitude and perspective you're not going to be a director in a year unless you start your own company so understand that it's about stepping away from this thing I call titles really working to what matters to you and building that into who you are as an individual and the other thing is is taking the time to not Express Yourself by what you do but to realize who you are because

by knowing who you are the journey becomes more clear it's almost like you know instead of carrying a compass to try to figure out the direction you want to go learn to become the needle in the compass Where You Now guide the direction you need to go those are the things that I think can help now there's a need for individuals to have confidence do you have tips on how one might gain confidence and skills in a particular area that they're interested in absolutely I mean and and I think there's also an importance to realize

that there's this fine line between confidence and Cockiness cockiness is this attitude of like yeah I am the best confidence is this inner sense and feeling you have that you know I'm I am able to do all this but I also am not afraid to ask questions I think sometimes what happens is we may feel that it's going to if not that you want to but the fellow employee every 30 seconds to ask him am I doing it right am I doing it right but if you have legitimate questions and that's that's confidence is the

ability to actually say I think I might need some help here so don't be afraid to ask that's one also to build confidence is this thing about working on your personal brand because we all have a personal brand but many people don't even know what their brand is and when you have a personal brand that you can appreciate you're now able to move forward with more confidence and it's not even that because you have this confidence opportunities start emerging because of that confidence I call that becoming loud without a voice in other words your presence

not that you have to walk into a room and announce your arrival but just this quiet confidence that you have that people look at going like there's something about this person or the fact that your reputation precedes you because of who you are there's two words character and reputation character is who you are reputation is people's perception of who you are guard both of those because that supports and helps your confidence say it is better to be a specialist or a generalist in business and actually I think it's it's important that both of those are

important depending on the role and responsibility the individual is pursuing I mean for me I'm a specialist and a generalist now what I mean by that is you know if it's talking about you know student engagement alumni relations and community outreach career development for young people I'm a specialist that's an area that I can go into a university college or high school and be able to really support the development of those programs equally I'm a generalist meaning I also go into organizations where I know very little about the company or organization but I sit there

and I listen to them and as a startup they'll tell me about what they're working on and then I'm going to ask questions well have you thought of this or actually you know here's somebody that I know that's in this area that I think could really support your business when you're starting out in your career I think it's it's important to start identifying you know what you're a specialist in are you a finance specialist are you a marketing specialist Healthcare professional and then but also don't be afraid to start speaking as a generalist as well

so that it opens up those opportunities so in a roundabout way I guess what I'm cheating here is to say I'm both of those I'm a specialist in certain areas but I'm not afraid because of the confidence we just talked about to walk into another business or something I have very little knowledge about but to be a generalist because then I can ask those really important questions that the public would ask of them and now we have a series of Rapid Fire questions for you Sam the first one is share your favorite book and why

you feel it is worth reading yeah I could cheat on this but no I'll give you one Sir Ken Robinson he wrote the element and what I loved about the book is it really focuses on finding what your element is what is it that becomes your superpower and I really like the way that he describes it so you know and what that's enabled me the person who gave me the book I really love what they wrote to the person who found their elements so they could help other people find their element so Sir Ken Robinson

The Element I think is a really great book for people to read if your life is an autobiography what would the title be if my life is an autobiography what would the title be it would be the fact that one needs to care and caring in society I think is really important I don't want to be a bystander in life so what I've dedicated myself to is sharing with other people I've been given a lot but I'm not allowed to hold on to it so I have to give it away so I think that's what

the title of my autobiography would be is there is a need for me to care what is your outlet there's a couple of outlets I have I think an outlet is really important because it frees your mind from the everyday for me woodworking is an outlet because it just allows me to just work on something to make it from something that's Ross and and organic into something that's beautiful but also another outlet that I have is my writing I think by writing it allows me to self-reflect so the writing and The Woodworking are two of

my Outlets what are you grateful for and why I'm grateful for the people around me and the reason I say that is because it goes back to Mr Isaac Newton said I I've only been able to see far because I stood on the shoulder of giants I'm grateful for all of the conversations that I've had and all the people that I've been able to meet because they've opened up so many opportunities in my life that has given me purpose and fulfillment what or who inspires you it's an interesting question because it could also be this

aspect of you know who's your Mentor I'm inspired by not one particular person I'm inspired by someone who has creativity is not afraid of being an ambiguous or an unstructured environment I'm inspired by someone who is not a bystander in life who's willing to roll up their sleeves to make a difference in their community Sam that sounds just like you do you inspire yourself I think what it is it's not so much inspiring myself but because there's this beautiful alignment of who I am and this quiet confidence that's why I said I've been given so

much that I'm not allowed to hold on to it I have to give it away and the more I give away the more keeps coming back to me our last question for you is provide an inspirational quote and why it is important to you I think it goes back to the autobiography quote you said earlier for me the quote that I lived by is everyone's life is an autobiography make yours worth reading every single one of us is a living story every single one of us has significance and purpose and I think we just need

to remember how important we are as individuals and how much of an impact that we do make I really want people to start living their autobiography and to make it so that it becomes worth reading okay well that wraps up our episode thank you so much Sam for being on our podcast well thank you so much for the opportunity to share today [Music]