the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my
career was to leave that job now this
might sound crazy to you but when you
hear how incredibly important this job
once was to me you’ll probably think I’m
even crazier so what I’m about to tell
you is my journey and how I discovered
success in this process I had an
interesting childhood aside from being a
homeschooled only child my family had an
interesting take on vacations every year
we would travel to Florida and whenever
we could we would schedule our trips
around space shuttle launches so I had
the chance to see four shuttle launches
in total including the very last and I
always remember that very first launch
experience I remember the lights and the
sound and more than anything I remember
the way that the ground shook and I
thought in that moment that I want my
life to feel like that and so I set my
sights on a goal that one day I would
work at NASA as years went on I decided
the best way to reach my goal would be
to study engineering in college and so
despite some rather poor grades in math
and science I stubbornly walked into my
freshman engineering class went up to my
professor and said what can I do to work
at NASA
lucky for me my professor understood my
dream and he said
why not get involved in research
projects or robotics competitions where
you can compete at NASA centers and
maybe even win an internship very
quickly I was often running involved in
four or five different projects on top
of trying to take classes I’m sure my
classmates thought I was crazy but I was
motivated because I was chasing my dream
I also had a hunch that my homeschooled
upbringing had something to do with my
attraction for this chaotic work
environment you see my mother worked
very hard to ensure that every single
day was different for me I experienced
my education through hands-on projects
travel and field trips and I was never
confined to the four walls of a
classroom little did I know at that time
what an incredible impact this would
have on my career and so I made it
through college in this way and when I
graduated low and behold I had my job at
NASA waiting for me I was so proud
because I thought I had successfully
manufactured my dream job I was working
alongside the brightest engineers on the
planet on incredible technology and yet
very quickly I realized that something
was wrong the once motivated and excited
college student had disappeared into a
demotivated employee at first I panicked
and I thought my gosh maybe I was never
gonna help for engineering all those bad
grades they were right but then I
thought about me in college and the
child that sat watching the space
shuttle launch my passion for technology
had not gone away the problem was that I
had been raised to be unemployable I
would never fit in this nine-to-five
work environment even if it was NASA so
I had a decision to make do I do what
society tells me to do and hold on to my
achievement people would say to me
Courtney it’s NASA how could you even
think of leaving or do I dare to allow
the question in my mind to be answered
what if I’m cut out for something else
so I decided to leave NASA and as I did
this I went through a process I thought
is it that I’m running away from
something or am i running to something
else what’s next for me for me I was
lucky I had something to run to even
though it was just a hunch
see I had started a company by accident
when I was in school it was something
that I always thought of as a side
project or a distraction on my way to
reach my dream job at NASA but very soon
I would find out that this job is where
I belonged all along it’s working on a
team of other students on an incredible
new technology for electric vehicle
batteries my professor recognized the
potential in this technology and said
why don’t you pitch this as a business
idea I thought well I’m an engineer I
don’t have any idea how to start a
company but again the same question came
about do I choose to stay in my comfort
zone or do I dare to have that question
answered what if we tried so we started
a company in this set us on a seven-year
journey we quickly gained traction
winning business plan competitions
raising funding I was named to the
Forbes 30 and
thirty last year and I thought well this
is it I’m going to be a successful
entrepreneur and make this company a
success but then again I was reminded
that if everything always went according
to the plans we have in our head life
wouldn’t be very interesting at all
would it we had a team member enter our
company and break the trust in our
relationship
this turned by exciting new dream job
into a toxic environment so once again
I’ve made the decision to move on in my
career
only this time for me the decision was
much easier because what I’ve now
learned is that happiness and
fulfillment for me has always been found
on the other side of my greatest fears
that success is never tied to the name
of the organization you work for to the
mirror achievements of a goal or to an
award or her fancy title success is an
experience it’s something that we find
only in the process of leaving ourselves
behind and chasing after our dreams with
everything that we have only to find
ourselves in a better place than we
could have ever planned for I’ll leave
you with a final thought it’s my
personal mantra I was a quote that was
taught to me by my mother many years ago
she would say to me Courtney go
confidently in the direction of your
dreams and endeavor to live a life which
you have imagined then you will meet
with a success unexpected in common
hours thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you