Ireland - June 28

Early morning today…but once again, it was so worth it!  We went to a cloud computing seminar this morning at 7:30 at the Titanic Museum.  It was in the room that had the replica staircase from the ship in it, so that was fun to see…and we took a class picture on it.  The topic of the seminar was interesting and something I’m glad I learned a bit more about, but the thing that stuck out the most to me was Sarah Friar.  The current SVP of Finance and Strategy at Salesforce.com and soon-to-be CFO for Square, she was an amazing presenter.  This came from two facets: she was very intelligent and articulate – she knew her stuff.  But she also had a big smile, was very bright and positive, and exuding charisma.  I literally wanted to have coffee with her just because she had such a positive energy.  I wouldn’t even care what we talked about.  That’s something I want to remember and work on.  I think I’m a pretty positive, friendly person, but when I’m in intense business stuff or giving a presentation, I tend to get very serious. Serious isn’t bad, but Sarah’s positive energy drew me in SO much more than Miriam Ferrari, the equally intelligent economist who spoke before her.  Smart, prepared, enthusiastic, and friendly.  Got it!

Then we headed over to the Science Park again for some presentations…and I half don’t know where to start – I took a lot of notes.  First was Willie McCarter, who was inspiring because he just did stuff.  Got a masters at MIT, took a small family business all the way to a big deal with Fruit of the Loom, started a whisky distillery…and as he said, “all because of a soccer game.”  In his case, I guess it wasn’t as much setting out specifically to conquer the world as it was taking full advantage of each opportunity that came his way.  I like that approach.  I want to squeeze every last drop out of every moment that’s given to me.  Which is why it bothers me to see what I interpret as someone not doing so.  One person in particular on this trip has seemed uninterested in things – surfing facebook during presentations, having no feedback when we talk about what we’re getting out of the trip…it’s none of my business, but I want to say “you’ll never have this change again – make the most of it!”  My mind goes two directions on this: first, it makes me think that maybe this person is getting something out of it, it’s just different than me and that’s ok.  Maybe they had different goals coming in and will be going home completely satisfied with the experience.  I know sometimes I might, for instance, not want to attack a black diamond ski slope with everything in me, but rather, take it a bit easier on blues.  Some might say I’m not getting all I could out of it, but for me, it’s a matter of enjoying what I’m doing at that moment.  So I need to be careful not to judge, because everyone has different goals and ways of experiencing things.  Second, it makes me wonder if maybe I’m not taking advantage of certain things that I could be.  I definitely think I have this trip and I try to on a general basis – it’s kind of who I am – but I’m a young, intelligent professional living in a great country…what business opportunities could I be going after?  What people could I be networking with?  When it comes right down to it, I suppose someone could always say someone else isn’t taking full advantage of something because they only see part of the picture.  The important thing is that I am making the most of each day I’m given.  I want to do that.  In fact, I’d be perfectly happy if that was my legacy – for people to say “she made every day count.”  Guess I’d better get busy on that. : )

So…then we heard from Sir George Quigley.  Which is apparently quite an honor!  That’s been pretty cool – we’ve been able to meet and speak with some rather impressive people!  Sir George has quite a distinguished career – the key thing I took from his presentation was that you take your first step and do it really well.  Then that leads to the next step, which again, you do really well.  And so on.  When people see you’ve done something well, they ask you to do it again or do something else…and so his career took off.  He also took the time to handwrite 8 pages of notes for his presentation, which was neat – he was well prepared, and gave thought to what he was going to do.  Two good traits to maintain.

Then was Lisa Bradley, the head of the department of international business at the University of Ulster.  She was interesting in that she actually asked us about our impressions/what we’ve learned.  One thing I appreciated that she said was “you have to be given the opportunity to fail.  Most entrepreneurs don’t succeed the first time.  It’s the second, third, fourth…”  I need to give myself the opportunity to fail.  Not beat myself up so much about it.  Use it as a learning experience and move on.

Colm McColdrick was an interesting fellow.  In sharp contrast to most of the people who spoke to us, he seemed a little arrogant and it wasn’t appealing.  He said that he only hires new graduates because he wants everything done his way.  I get that to an extent, but it flies in the face of what every successful person has told us – surround yourself with people who are different than you and who push back, who challenge you until you make it better.  So I wasn’t overly impressed with that.  If you can’t handle someone pushing on your ideas (in a respectful way), you’re not going to make it very long as a leader.  Not a good one, at least.  I did like when he said “If you expect to get, you better expect to give.”  Duly noted.  He also said “I don’t want to be anyone else.  I want to be me.” 

Then we piled in a minibus and went out to Andor, a company that makes very expensive, high-powered cameras.  We got a brief tour of the facility, which was fascinating, but the highlight was listening to Connor Walsh (CEO) speak.  I would work for him in heartbeat.  I have six pages of notes that I’m too tired to fully expand on now, but I’ll do a few highlights.  One of the things I noted is that he said “if you don’t intentionally set a culture by developing and following clearly defined values, a culture will create itself.”  That’s one of the biggest jobs of a top leader – to develop and implement and model values that create a positive culture.  It can make all the difference between a well-oiled machine and mass chaos.  Another big theme was communication….over and over and over again!  And third is that you must execute.  The most perfect plan is worthless if people get distracted and run down rabbit trails.  Execute according to the plan, stay focused.  That doesn’t even begin to do Connor justice, but I’m getting tired… : )

Last but definitely not least was Bryan Keating.  What a cool guy with a life that I can’t imagine he regrets.  Again, I can’t do him justice here, but he had some good things to say about risk.  Risk is a personal thing and risk to one person might be normal to another.  The important thing is to continually push beyond your comfort zone – even just a little bit at a time – in some area.  It could be business, physical, social, financial, etc, but doing so pushes your boundaries back a bit and lets you do more next time.  He said “everyone has their own barrier to risk.”  What’s mine?  What holds me back?  Fear of what?  Make every day count Kristi – no regrets!

During Bryan’s presentation he had a little box that he said he’d put money in and take it out at various points… and any one of us could walk up and take it at any point, no questions asked.  I figured he had about $62 from what I could see, so I waited until it got up to $40 and took it.  At that point it was enough to be worthwhile and I thought someone else would take it if I didn’t.  It was slightly awkward doing it, but not that bad.  In the box with the money there was a note that said “The first steps are always the hardest.”  Meaning just go for it – it gets easier after you do.  I made sure to get a picture with Bryan afterward.  I did offer to give his money back, but he said “Another piece of advice – never give money back when someone has given it to you.”

We had our last class dinner at McCrackins, which was fun.  I’ve really enjoyed our time here, and it seems really weird that tomorrow is the last day.  What a past two weeks…I’ve pretty much loved every minute of it!