Identifying Your Signal in a Crowd of Noise

This will most likely be my most vulnerable piece ever written. If you end up staying till the end and listening to my story, I appreciate you more than you could ever know.

The Preface…

This weekend, I had the opportunity to bring my dreams to life as I was able to host “Odyssey Cup,” and I want to talk a little bit about what that changed for me.

The Background…

I was extremely fortunate to find my passion early on in the start-up ecosystem, and after honing in on that passion, I was able to narrow down my love for the industry to Venture Capital. With VC, you get the unique opportunity to empower various critical builders to bring their visions to life through money and mentorship. If you’re familiar with VC, you know that there is no direct pipeline into the industry, and you would think that in itself is enough to discourage anyone, let alone a 17-year-old. However, despite hearing this from every single person I would connect with, not being able to break in wasn’t even a possibility in my mind.

Coming into university I was excited for two reasons.

1. I’ll find a community of entrepreneurs to grow in and further explore my career

2. In two years I’ll be in the most prestigious business school in the country and my pathway will become clear

It took me two weeks to realize that the first reason didn’t exist in my university and another year before I realized that the second reason did not correlate.

The Mould…

Apply for a bunch of clubs, accept 2-3 offers, participate in case competitions, stick to a club and apply for VP, host a case comp, attend a firms trip here and there, apply for jobs, prep for interviews, accept a job offer, then finally get into your dream program that you worked so hard for and your life is set. That pretty much sums up what every keen business student is told, and that’s what 99% of people desire, rightfully so.

Like everyone, I got looped into this cycle, and like everyone, I strived to check all those boxes. But what I didn’t realize at the time was despite having a clear path leading me to my “success”, the past two years have been the hardest of my life.

The Trials & Tribulations…

This summer, one of my favourite clubs which I decided to stick with and apply for a VP position, appointed me to a new portfolio. Now while this would seem like an amazing opportunity, we had a lot of problems internally and externally. My portfolio was left purposeless due to complications, so I came up with a purpose for it—amongst other clubs, to help foster that entrepreneurial community that I sought in the first year with a big bang event.

This weekend I hosted that event…”Odyssey Cup”. A 2-day gamified case competition where we would teach entrepreneurial skills necessary to build a startup, all in gamified competitive workshops. Using all the skills they learned, delegates are expected to dig deep within their passions, identify a problem, ideate a solution, build an MVP, validate, pivot, etc.—and put it all into a pitch. We were sponsored by prominent Accelerators, VCs, and Founders, to bring delegates cash prizes, recruiting opportunities, as well as the community I longed for.

The thought process behind this event was that my university does such a good job of fostering corporate demons, there’s a reason why we’re top 20 in the world for it and it’s amazing. But because of this, there’s a certain pressure for all high-achieving individuals to fit this mould. There’s a pressure to participate in case comps where you’re pitching corporate solutions like AI chatbots which most know nothing about implementing, pressured to take part in surface-level networking with the pure objective of a recommendation for a passionless job, and in general to think very linear.

With Odyssey Cup, my vision was to break this mindset of thinking linear, and to tackle solutions in a creative aspect, pulling from one’s own experiences. I wanted to teach skills in the right competitive environment that would empower students to break and create their moulds, not fit into someone else’s.

The Struggle…

While planning this event over the past many months, my team ran through so many obstacles, struggles, doubt, and ignorance, from inside our club and outside, often out of our control which we’ve had to adapt to in many ways. While this sounds daunting, if you had described this scenario to me 2 years ago, my blood would’ve been boiling with excitement and I probably would have given you some corny line like “Bring it on”, yet, for some reason, it was the most difficult time of my life….

I struggled to get up every day, I struggled to see value in what I was doing, I was diagnosed with depression, and prescribed different medications to feel any sense of normalcy. Overall, I just lost my sense of who I was. I still pursued the event, however, because it was my job and I had the most supportive team behind me every step of the way.

The Signal…

It wasn’t until this weekend that I changed. I could actively see students start to think differently. I had students come up to me and tell me my advice changed the way they looked at their solutions and competitions in general. My event taught them skills that made them want to explore different pathways, and some told me this was the first time they had fun waking up early on a weekend to compete for another opportunity to stand out. For the first time in years, I saw a little bit of my old self again in every single participant.

I was so blinded by this opportunity for a set life that I became complacent. Everything I started to do was all for the goal of meeting my conditional to get into this school everyone held so highly. I didn’t go to class to learn content; I went to make studying easier to keep my grades high. I didn’t participate in some clubs and events because I was passionate about them; I did it to boost my application when the time came, and slowly, I lost touch with my true passions, like writing for this newsletter and pursuing my dream industry. I got so caught up with the hype I didn’t even think to ask myself what I wanted for the next two years of my life and if I saw my ideal career aligning with this shared vision.

It was today morning while I was finishing my application that I thought back to seeing all these bright students with sparkles in their eyes listen to our amazing guest speakers and finally questioned if I saw myself in that setting.

Frankly, the answer was no. I want to carve my own path; I enjoy not walking a linear path. The flip side to the risk of feeling uncomfortable is achieving things you couldn’t envision. I miss putting myself in uncomfortable situations so let’s see where this one takes me next.

This by no means is any shade to any pathway; it’s one of the best for a reason and who knows, maybe things will change, and I’ll want to come back later. I’m simply cooking this up to share my story and hopefully help anyone else who wants to carve their path and needs the push to do so.

The Conclusion…

If there’s anything I can leave you with, let it be this…there’s nothing wrong with forging your own path, if you’re passionate and driven by your goals, don’t be afraid to commit to your decisions. Each will be a learning experience anyway…like my good friend and mentor said “It’s all about finding your signal in a crowd of noise”. (If you’re looking to learn to make more confident decisions, I really recommend reading Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish)

Till next time…

~ThatVCGuy