Notes from an intern and aspiring Fearless fem:

Last week I had the honor of hearing two incredible speakers share their stories and inspirations at an event brought to campus by NetDay Silicon Valley.

First I must acknowledge the unbelievable talent we up here in the Bay Area. It really hit me just how fortunate I am to have fallen into such a mecca of innovation and excitement about the future! The climate we currently inhabit thrives on precisely the collaboration, new ideas, and risks that startups and entrepreneurs require. And the possibilities to connect with people doing amazing things are endless!

Edith Yeung, founder of the BizTechDay entrepreneur conference (biztechday.com) and host of the SF Entrepreneur Meetup (sfentrepreneur.com), started off the evening with her personal anecdotes about leaving the safe environment of business for a riskier but more satisfying career. She recounted the time she broke down in tears after waiting over an hour in commute traffic for a job that just wasn't worth it:

"If the rest of my life is stuck in traffic for a business I don't believe in, shame on me," she said.

Carlos Emilio Goméz, a young Spanish brain at Google, also spoke about taking risks, listening to your intuition, and taking the alternative route. Most poignant to me was what Carlos explained to be his ultimate reason for taking his current job at Google: If he looked 4 years into the future on one path, he knew exactly where he would be. It was good. If he looked 4 years down the Google road, he didn't know where he would be. But guess what - that meant no limits and no boundaries on his growth.

The theme to the event was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and it wasn't until this point that I realized this question was not to make us reminisce about what our dreams were when we were 6 in order to make us feel bad about our failures to become astronauts and ballerinas. It was about shaping our dreams now. 

You see, we never stop growing unless we let ourselves. Edith declared that only when you reach a certain point, and you get too comfortable, do you then inhibit your ability to grow. So guess what? You can still ask yourself this question everyday. You can still ask your friends and colleagues this question. Since when did it switch from the optimistic "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "What the heck can you do with that degree?" to "When are you going to retire?"

And who decided the subjective age of "grown-up" anyway? I say keep growing, and keeping creating and recreating your dreams for when you grow up, because you've really got nothing to lose. The only reason you don't have another ridiculous vision of becoming the next big Hollywood director is because you didn't think you were still allowed to have that vision.

Edith ended by quoting a personal favorite Frost piece of mine, "The Road Not Taken," which I hope you will find just as inspiring:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

To be an entrepreneur, to take the road less traveled, or even to have the guts to go out and start something on your own and leave behind the trail - that to me is true Fearlessness. I have such a great respect for the people who still have dreams for what they want to be when they grow up, and I for one will continue to mold my own.