I should dealt with personal nurse sure
right before this talk a couple of
summers ago I had the opportunity to
intern at a start-up in the Bay Area and
for the longest time this is my dream
these were the people I wanted to meet
and by the end of it it was by far one
of the best and most memorable
experiences that I’ve ever had I learned
a ton about marketing about startups
about venture capital and so much more
but more importantly I met some pretty
cool people from students at other
universities to some truly impressive
individuals who’d had started million
and billion dollar companies now my
internship program gave us the
opportunity to meet with some of these
people they told us that they were here
as a resource for us and all we had to
do was to email them reach out to them
they made it abundantly clear that that
was one of the major points of the
program and so that’s what I set out to
do in June 2016 I was going female these
people contact them set up meetings get
coffee a lot of coffee me know what
these people learn from them and just
make great connections 70 days later my
internship was over and I had met up
with two people and then I wait at home
to this day I still ask myself why why
had I only met up with two people the
entire summer
these people were entrepreneurs they
were investors they were venture
capitalists they were industry
professionals these were all people I
wanted to meet but I didn’t was it
because I was too busy at work no I went
to work from 8:00 to 5:00 was it because
I was too busy outside of work not
really
honestly there are a lot of evenings
when I went home after work watch TV ate
and went to bed
and so I asked myself
why did I have this amazing opportunity
literally in my lap but I didn’t take
full advantage of it I think a big part
of why I didn’t was because of personal
ownership
personal inertia is being unable to
change your current behavior due to
mental and psychological factors it’s
not afraid as most people know but
pretty much everyone knows what it means
personal nurses
that feeling you have when it’s 9:00
a.m. and you’re in bed you don’t want to
get out of bed even though you have
class in 15 minutes it’s that feeling
you have when you’re standing at an info
session and you see the recruiter
standing at the front you know you
should go talk to them it can only help
you but you don’t it’s that feeling you
have when you’re sitting at your
computer and you’ve seen email that’s
kind of important and you know you
should probably reply to it and it would
only take a couple of minutes ami mode
maybe more but you don’t and you put it
off for a week no reason at all it’s
that feeling you have when you’re
submitting an application to an
internship a position a job a
scholarship whatever and you’re just
sitting on the application not
submitting it for absolutely no reason
and then the deadline passes and you
missed your opportunity I’ve dealt with
personal nurse’ a lot not just for
myself but from people I meet around me
all the time a couple months ago I was
organizing this info session for an
organization called Y Combinator one of
the largest and oldest arm accelerators
in the world and at this event we had a
partner from Y Combinator named adora
come down to Georgia Tech to speak to
students and founders who were
interested in applying and at this event
we had about 60 or 70 people it was a
pretty full room a couple hours later
the events over and just standing near
the exit watching the last six or seven
people finished talking to Dora because
of course everyone wanted to go talk to
her after the event was over
and I see these two people walking
towards the exit before they could make
it to the exit I intercept them and I
asked them what they thought of the
event they told me that was great and
they learned a ton from adora then I
asked them did you get a chance to speak
to a door after the event then told me
no they hadn’t talked to her the line
seemed kind of long
she was probably busy and tired they
were just gonna go home then I asked
them are you doing anything when you get
home and they told me no they weren’t
playing on doing anything then I said
are you planning on applying and you
told me yes of course they were applying
let me get this straight
you want to apply to Y Combinator
tonight a partner from Y Combinator is
specifically being paid to be here at
Georgia Tech to speak to people like you
guys who are interested in applying to Y
Combinator a lot of people want to talk
to her because she’s actually on the
admissions team and it’s a very good
chance that if you guys apply she’ll
probably be reading your application and
that’s why a lot of people want to talk
to her to get some useful insights about
the app and tonight and only tonight
she’s here in Atlanta and she probably
won’t be here for the next couple of
years because most the other time she’s
in other cities or she’s back at her job
in California and the only thing
stopping you is a line of about six or
seven people and you weren’t doing
anything when you got home anyways they
got back in line
now I tell this story not because I love
telling the story but because I think
it’s a very good example of how
deceptively hard personal nurse’
is to overcome it’s this mental
construct of reasons excuses and
figments of your imagination that you
create that stops you from doing what
you actually want to do but in reality
there’s nothing stopping you at all
it’s just this thing you make up to fool
yourself and you’re thinking something
is much harder than it actually is
people do this all the time with the
decisions about their careers their
goals their relationships their life
decisions and you have to ask yourself
why do you hesitate what’s stopping you
is there anything stopping you now I’m
telling this like it’s very very easy
and simple to overcome personal
ownership and I’m an expert but I was
always this way in fact when I was a lot
younger during my middle school in high
school years I actually dealt with
personal inertia a lot I was a pretty
shy timid and unmotivated kid I had this
problem where I couldn’t speak to people
I didn’t know that well I also
especially couldn’t speak out a crowd
like this and I also had this weird
habit of starting things and not
finishing them I would write stories
fiction and nonfiction and just not
finish though I play video games for
hours and not finish them I’d start
applications to scholarships programs
colleges and I wouldn’t finish them and
I didn’t know why maybe it was because I
was embarrassed by what I was doing
maybe because it was because I was
worried that whatever I was doing wasn’t
good enough maybe I was worried that
whatever I was doing I didn’t seem like
I was good enough for it
I didn’t know why but it bothered me
because I didn’t know what it was and it
didn’t seem like anyone else had this
problem I just felt like I was letting
people down
time and so it stayed with me for years
then it all changed during my sophomore
year in college in college I started a
business called elevate media with my
friend Wesley and we started off just
making videos for small companies on the
side there’s just something we did for
fine while we’re in school then one day
of my sophomore year we get a text from
a friend and as it turns out our
friend’s dad worked at coca-cola and
they had a project for us they had this
new tech initiative they wanted to make
a video about and they asked us if we
wanted to take on the project and of
course we said yes how could we not it
was cool cool Cola be fine as it turned
out the entire project just a single
video took about you know nine months I
mean we were completely different people
by the end of the project it was insane
how long it lasted it was like we took
norm and we normally did in a video
project and extended it ten times as
long and we’re just so exhausted by the
end of the project but I had to be
honest there were a lot of things during
the project that took a long time
just because was saying I didn’t get
things done they send us you know a
slate of changes to make to the video
video and we would just sit on it
no reason it’s like we were busy we just
didn’t do it we’d wait a week maybe two
and then finally we did the work and set
it back and then the process repeated
itself over and over again and
eventually we finished the project but
it did take forever we kept asking
ourselves why did we let this project go
on for so long
bricil inertia we made it reasons and
excuses for what happened but in reality
a large part of the blame was on us
throughout the project there was
cognitive dissonance it’s this concept
of simultaneously holding
two conflicting thoughts at once on one
hands there wasn’t really a reason for
us to not do it faster but on the other
hands there can’t not be a reason
there’s a reason for everything so we
created reasons to justify to ourselves
and of course we’re not inclined you see
something is our fault so it’s someone
else’s fault and you can begin to see
how easy it is to trick yourself and to
not do anything at all and forcing
excuses and placing the blame on other
people and other things but after that
project I was done letting personal
ownership
get in my way I was done letting people
down
and so I researched the issue and tried
to figure out ways to overcome it and
that’s how I came up with a framework
for dealing with my own personal inertia
it’s a series of questions oftentimes
people find themselves dealing with
personal norcia in situations where you
know there’s nothing actually stopping
them from doing what they want to do so
when you find yourself in a situation
like that just take a step back and ask
yourself these questions do I really
want this what’s between me and my goal
what are the benefits I get out of this
does this matter to me in the long run
in 2010 there’s a study conducted by
researchers at the U of I this study was
about self motivation self talk and how
to best motivate yourself to succeed in
this study they compared two groups of
people one group of people told
themselves I will do X before completing
a certain task and the second group of
people asked themselves will I do X
before completing a certain task they
then had the both groups complete that
task and compare the results as it
turned out the group that asked
themselves well I do X did better they
ran the experiment again with a
different task and the results were the
same
the researchers concluded that by asking
themselves a question about their
motivations and what they were going to
do these people had actually increased
their own
motivation so let’s try these questions
out let’s just take an example some of
you are pretty familiar with applying to
internships let’s just say you’re
applying to an internship at a company
like Microsoft you’ve been sitting on
the application for a couple weeks you
haven’t made any progress you fill out
your first name but not the last name
and you decide you know I’m stuck on
this I got to get this thing done so I’m
gonna use this framework do I really
want this yeah I think it’d be pretty
cool to work at Microsoft what’s between
me and my goal the currently an
internship application that probably
take me about 20 minutes to finish what
are the benefits I get out of this if I
get the internship I could get good
resume experience good work experience a
lot of good connections and like a ton
of money does this matter me in the long
run yeah I think working at Microsoft
would ultimately help me in my career
and with that the answer is pretty
simple apply there’s no reason that you
shouldn’t it’s that simple
of course this framework can also be
used to apply to other situations where
you may not think it’s appropriate but I
came up with it so I’m gonna do it
I’m a couple weeks ago I’m sitting at my
desk staring at a homework assignment I
have to do it’s just blank there’s
nothing on it it’s been on the
assignment page for the last couple
weeks but I haven’t made any progress
and it’s due in several hours Georgia
Tech and I think you know I’m stuck on
this so I might as well use the
framework why not
no I really don’t wanna do this homework
what’s between me my goal well currently
this homework would probably take me
about a couple hours maybe a little more
what are the benefits I get out of this
well if I did do the homework I could
potentially learn something for the
assignment and maybe get a good grade
does this matter me in the long run
this class isn’t tied to my major I
don’t care about the class or its
information I’m a senior so whatever I
do in the class won’t matter because it
won’t affect my GPA that much I could
get an F and it move my average like
point zero five and honestly I won’t
remember the class after I graduated so
with that the answer is pretty simple I
didn’t do the homework I closed my
laptop went to bed
I know when I woke up next morning I
felt great Oh close
honestly this framework has helped me a
ton it forces you to look critically at
whatever situation you’re in and allows
you to remove any sort of ambiguity you
might have accidentally inserted into
the situation for the longest time it
always bothered me when I saw people
getting stumped by personal inertia
because it reminded me of myself and I
knew how it felt to get stuck like that
but eventually I got tired of saying I
was going to do something and not do it
I got tired of setting goals and not
achieving them I got tired of people
relying on me and letting them down I
got tired of letting opportunity after
opportunity Awards scholarships
relationships positions internships all
these opportunities pass me by for
absolutely no reason at all and after I
changed myself I was just amazed not
because I started getting more thing
it’s done but because people started
treating me differently they started
talking me differently they were
surprised by the progress I’ve made and
sometimes it still surprises me you all
have goals you all have needs once
things you want to achieve but often
times the biggest thing the biggest
barrier to that achievement is just
yourself and I see no reason why they
should be that
so next time you find yourself getting
stuck on something you can’t seem to
bring yourself to get out of that hole
you’ve dug in you dug yourself into just
take a step back and ask yourself these
important questions do I really want
this what’s between me and my goal what
are the benefits I get out of this
this has mattered me in the long run if
you find that the answers are
overwhelmingly positive then you have no
more excuses thank you
[Applause]
right before this talk a couple of
summers ago I had the opportunity to
intern at a start-up in the Bay Area and
for the longest time this is my dream
these were the people I wanted to meet
and by the end of it it was by far one
of the best and most memorable
experiences that I’ve ever had I learned
a ton about marketing about startups
about venture capital and so much more
but more importantly I met some pretty
cool people from students at other
universities to some truly impressive
individuals who’d had started million
and billion dollar companies now my
internship program gave us the
opportunity to meet with some of these
people they told us that they were here
as a resource for us and all we had to
do was to email them reach out to them
they made it abundantly clear that that
was one of the major points of the
program and so that’s what I set out to
do in June 2016 I was going female these
people contact them set up meetings get
coffee a lot of coffee me know what
these people learn from them and just
make great connections 70 days later my
internship was over and I had met up
with two people and then I wait at home
to this day I still ask myself why why
had I only met up with two people the
entire summer
these people were entrepreneurs they
were investors they were venture
capitalists they were industry
professionals these were all people I
wanted to meet but I didn’t was it
because I was too busy at work no I went
to work from 8:00 to 5:00 was it because
I was too busy outside of work not
really
honestly there are a lot of evenings
when I went home after work watch TV ate
and went to bed
and so I asked myself
why did I have this amazing opportunity
literally in my lap but I didn’t take
full advantage of it I think a big part
of why I didn’t was because of personal
ownership
personal inertia is being unable to
change your current behavior due to
mental and psychological factors it’s
not afraid as most people know but
pretty much everyone knows what it means
personal nurses
that feeling you have when it’s 9:00
a.m. and you’re in bed you don’t want to
get out of bed even though you have
class in 15 minutes it’s that feeling
you have when you’re standing at an info
session and you see the recruiter
standing at the front you know you
should go talk to them it can only help
you but you don’t it’s that feeling you
have when you’re sitting at your
computer and you’ve seen email that’s
kind of important and you know you
should probably reply to it and it would
only take a couple of minutes ami mode
maybe more but you don’t and you put it
off for a week no reason at all it’s
that feeling you have when you’re
submitting an application to an
internship a position a job a
scholarship whatever and you’re just
sitting on the application not
submitting it for absolutely no reason
and then the deadline passes and you
missed your opportunity I’ve dealt with
personal nurse’ a lot not just for
myself but from people I meet around me
all the time a couple months ago I was
organizing this info session for an
organization called Y Combinator one of
the largest and oldest arm accelerators
in the world and at this event we had a
partner from Y Combinator named adora
come down to Georgia Tech to speak to
students and founders who were
interested in applying and at this event
we had about 60 or 70 people it was a
pretty full room a couple hours later
the events over and just standing near
the exit watching the last six or seven
people finished talking to Dora because
of course everyone wanted to go talk to
her after the event was over
and I see these two people walking
towards the exit before they could make
it to the exit I intercept them and I
asked them what they thought of the
event they told me that was great and
they learned a ton from adora then I
asked them did you get a chance to speak
to a door after the event then told me
no they hadn’t talked to her the line
seemed kind of long
she was probably busy and tired they
were just gonna go home then I asked
them are you doing anything when you get
home and they told me no they weren’t
playing on doing anything then I said
are you planning on applying and you
told me yes of course they were applying
let me get this straight
you want to apply to Y Combinator
tonight a partner from Y Combinator is
specifically being paid to be here at
Georgia Tech to speak to people like you
guys who are interested in applying to Y
Combinator a lot of people want to talk
to her because she’s actually on the
admissions team and it’s a very good
chance that if you guys apply she’ll
probably be reading your application and
that’s why a lot of people want to talk
to her to get some useful insights about
the app and tonight and only tonight
she’s here in Atlanta and she probably
won’t be here for the next couple of
years because most the other time she’s
in other cities or she’s back at her job
in California and the only thing
stopping you is a line of about six or
seven people and you weren’t doing
anything when you got home anyways they
got back in line
now I tell this story not because I love
telling the story but because I think
it’s a very good example of how
deceptively hard personal nurse’
is to overcome it’s this mental
construct of reasons excuses and
figments of your imagination that you
create that stops you from doing what
you actually want to do but in reality
there’s nothing stopping you at all
it’s just this thing you make up to fool
yourself and you’re thinking something
is much harder than it actually is
people do this all the time with the
decisions about their careers their
goals their relationships their life
decisions and you have to ask yourself
why do you hesitate what’s stopping you
is there anything stopping you now I’m
telling this like it’s very very easy
and simple to overcome personal
ownership and I’m an expert but I was
always this way in fact when I was a lot
younger during my middle school in high
school years I actually dealt with
personal inertia a lot I was a pretty
shy timid and unmotivated kid I had this
problem where I couldn’t speak to people
I didn’t know that well I also
especially couldn’t speak out a crowd
like this and I also had this weird
habit of starting things and not
finishing them I would write stories
fiction and nonfiction and just not
finish though I play video games for
hours and not finish them I’d start
applications to scholarships programs
colleges and I wouldn’t finish them and
I didn’t know why maybe it was because I
was embarrassed by what I was doing
maybe because it was because I was
worried that whatever I was doing wasn’t
good enough maybe I was worried that
whatever I was doing I didn’t seem like
I was good enough for it
I didn’t know why but it bothered me
because I didn’t know what it was and it
didn’t seem like anyone else had this
problem I just felt like I was letting
people down
time and so it stayed with me for years
then it all changed during my sophomore
year in college in college I started a
business called elevate media with my
friend Wesley and we started off just
making videos for small companies on the
side there’s just something we did for
fine while we’re in school then one day
of my sophomore year we get a text from
a friend and as it turns out our
friend’s dad worked at coca-cola and
they had a project for us they had this
new tech initiative they wanted to make
a video about and they asked us if we
wanted to take on the project and of
course we said yes how could we not it
was cool cool Cola be fine as it turned
out the entire project just a single
video took about you know nine months I
mean we were completely different people
by the end of the project it was insane
how long it lasted it was like we took
norm and we normally did in a video
project and extended it ten times as
long and we’re just so exhausted by the
end of the project but I had to be
honest there were a lot of things during
the project that took a long time
just because was saying I didn’t get
things done they send us you know a
slate of changes to make to the video
video and we would just sit on it
no reason it’s like we were busy we just
didn’t do it we’d wait a week maybe two
and then finally we did the work and set
it back and then the process repeated
itself over and over again and
eventually we finished the project but
it did take forever we kept asking
ourselves why did we let this project go
on for so long
bricil inertia we made it reasons and
excuses for what happened but in reality
a large part of the blame was on us
throughout the project there was
cognitive dissonance it’s this concept
of simultaneously holding
two conflicting thoughts at once on one
hands there wasn’t really a reason for
us to not do it faster but on the other
hands there can’t not be a reason
there’s a reason for everything so we
created reasons to justify to ourselves
and of course we’re not inclined you see
something is our fault so it’s someone
else’s fault and you can begin to see
how easy it is to trick yourself and to
not do anything at all and forcing
excuses and placing the blame on other
people and other things but after that
project I was done letting personal
ownership
get in my way I was done letting people
down
and so I researched the issue and tried
to figure out ways to overcome it and
that’s how I came up with a framework
for dealing with my own personal inertia
it’s a series of questions oftentimes
people find themselves dealing with
personal norcia in situations where you
know there’s nothing actually stopping
them from doing what they want to do so
when you find yourself in a situation
like that just take a step back and ask
yourself these questions do I really
want this what’s between me and my goal
what are the benefits I get out of this
does this matter to me in the long run
in 2010 there’s a study conducted by
researchers at the U of I this study was
about self motivation self talk and how
to best motivate yourself to succeed in
this study they compared two groups of
people one group of people told
themselves I will do X before completing
a certain task and the second group of
people asked themselves will I do X
before completing a certain task they
then had the both groups complete that
task and compare the results as it
turned out the group that asked
themselves well I do X did better they
ran the experiment again with a
different task and the results were the
same
the researchers concluded that by asking
themselves a question about their
motivations and what they were going to
do these people had actually increased
their own
motivation so let’s try these questions
out let’s just take an example some of
you are pretty familiar with applying to
internships let’s just say you’re
applying to an internship at a company
like Microsoft you’ve been sitting on
the application for a couple weeks you
haven’t made any progress you fill out
your first name but not the last name
and you decide you know I’m stuck on
this I got to get this thing done so I’m
gonna use this framework do I really
want this yeah I think it’d be pretty
cool to work at Microsoft what’s between
me and my goal the currently an
internship application that probably
take me about 20 minutes to finish what
are the benefits I get out of this if I
get the internship I could get good
resume experience good work experience a
lot of good connections and like a ton
of money does this matter me in the long
run yeah I think working at Microsoft
would ultimately help me in my career
and with that the answer is pretty
simple apply there’s no reason that you
shouldn’t it’s that simple
of course this framework can also be
used to apply to other situations where
you may not think it’s appropriate but I
came up with it so I’m gonna do it
I’m a couple weeks ago I’m sitting at my
desk staring at a homework assignment I
have to do it’s just blank there’s
nothing on it it’s been on the
assignment page for the last couple
weeks but I haven’t made any progress
and it’s due in several hours Georgia
Tech and I think you know I’m stuck on
this so I might as well use the
framework why not
no I really don’t wanna do this homework
what’s between me my goal well currently
this homework would probably take me
about a couple hours maybe a little more
what are the benefits I get out of this
well if I did do the homework I could
potentially learn something for the
assignment and maybe get a good grade
does this matter me in the long run
this class isn’t tied to my major I
don’t care about the class or its
information I’m a senior so whatever I
do in the class won’t matter because it
won’t affect my GPA that much I could
get an F and it move my average like
point zero five and honestly I won’t
remember the class after I graduated so
with that the answer is pretty simple I
didn’t do the homework I closed my
laptop went to bed
I know when I woke up next morning I
felt great Oh close
honestly this framework has helped me a
ton it forces you to look critically at
whatever situation you’re in and allows
you to remove any sort of ambiguity you
might have accidentally inserted into
the situation for the longest time it
always bothered me when I saw people
getting stumped by personal inertia
because it reminded me of myself and I
knew how it felt to get stuck like that
but eventually I got tired of saying I
was going to do something and not do it
I got tired of setting goals and not
achieving them I got tired of people
relying on me and letting them down I
got tired of letting opportunity after
opportunity Awards scholarships
relationships positions internships all
these opportunities pass me by for
absolutely no reason at all and after I
changed myself I was just amazed not
because I started getting more thing
it’s done but because people started
treating me differently they started
talking me differently they were
surprised by the progress I’ve made and
sometimes it still surprises me you all
have goals you all have needs once
things you want to achieve but often
times the biggest thing the biggest
barrier to that achievement is just
yourself and I see no reason why they
should be that
so next time you find yourself getting
stuck on something you can’t seem to
bring yourself to get out of that hole
you’ve dug in you dug yourself into just
take a step back and ask yourself these
important questions do I really want
this what’s between me and my goal what
are the benefits I get out of this
this has mattered me in the long run if
you find that the answers are
overwhelmingly positive then you have no
more excuses thank you
[Applause]
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