What would you say?

At a recent event when I was sharing my career journey with a group of vibrant engineering students, a bright young mind asked me a powerful question: "With one sentence, what advice would you give your 18-year-old self?"

Tough question! Not because the answer wasn't clear, but because I was limited to ONE sentence. Talk about a challenge! In reality, I could write a whole book on this.

But here's the one sentence I landed on (I had to think on my feet): “Don’t care too much about what other people think of you, live your own life and chase your own dreams. “

• I cared too much about what my parents thought of me. I wanted their approval and I didn’t want to fail them.

• I cared too much what my peers thought of me. I wanted them to like me.

• I cared too much about what my professors thought about me. I wanted them to appraise me intelligent.

• I cared too much about what strangers thought of me - yes even strangers! I wanted them to respect me.

For a long time, I had been living THEIR lives, not mine.

Here are the questions for YOU:

• Whose life are YOU living?

• Whose dreams are YOU chasing?

• What would YOU tell your 18-year-old self?