I still remember 6 years ago I sat in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Toronto at 3:00am with my two students for the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) national competition. I was helping our SFU SIFE team build a power point presentation for later that morning and knowing full well we were not going to do well…and we did not do well. Out of about 40 teams, we wound up coming dead last. We had gone from a thriving chapter to one of just six students and almost out of existence. The turnaround was coming last…we knew it could not get worse and we could only build from there. So started a journey.
Today, I attended the regional competition to watch my SIFE team and they were about 30 people strong attending the regionals and we had a great showing and results. I sat there thinking about where we had come from and where we are today. I saw pride, strength and passion among our students. Our team supported each other and other schools from around the province. What impresses me about our SIFE team is the volume of work they do to help change lives one person at a time…and they have succeeded. Here is their link – http://sifesimonfraser.com/
Life goes beyond just the competition. SIFE SFU is a family. They all contribute to the network and worked very hard to get to the regional competition and are now getting ready for the national competition later this year. I am on parental leave and am not allowed to be working. I found it very difficult to sit on the side lines as I have worked with our three teams. I wound up showing up and making a guest appearance. The appreciation I felt over and over again from my students was so amazing. It was genuine and heartfelt. It meant a lot to them and it meant a lot to me. I knew there was no question that I had to be there and it was special. A few times we made it to the stage as a very strong group to receive the honours and awards. I am sitting here and very proud of all the work they have done. For the teams, getting to know you all if I did not know you from before was my highlight. You are all amazing individuals. I just got to sit there as a coach and smile at the results. I will be making my way to Calgary for the National competition to be present to support our team. At SIFE Simon Fraser, you will always hear – ‘‘We Dare to Do!’’…and they DO!
PS – To add to this, today I received an envelope from Carl in England and he forwarded me a couple of British coins from 1962 – I was born in England and the year I was born! I took the six pence and that now sits in my wallet for good luck. I will hold on to this throughout the year as a gesture of generosity from a person that a couple of weeks ago was not on my radar screen. Someone genuine who appreciates what I am doing with the 50/50-2012 and we have sparked a friendship. At least on this one, it is not a penny for your thoughts but more a six pence for your thoughts…thanks Carl!
PSS – I should add, and rightfully so, that during our darkest hours, Pei Gang Lei showed tremendous leadership and kept us in survival mode when we could have vanished. Pei and Spencer went to Toronto where I sat with them to build the power point I mentioned at the outset. I might have not spoken about this important person and chapter. It is important to build from success but when you aren’t provided the tools, this becomes very difficult.
The team did fantastic. Proud to know them.
I remember what happened 6 years ago because I was one of those 2 students. I was the president in 2006 and took over the initiative to revive the club. I have no problem being dead last in that presentation. But what really makes me angry about showing up to this event was I had to present some really crappy results that created by the previous leaderships. I don’t think I ever told anyone the level of adversities I was facing in that year. First semester I have 6 commited executives joining my team. By the end of first semester, all other executives left my team because the tasks we gotta do are simply too much and too challenging for them. By then, there only left myself and a new member, 2 person, that’s all we have left to show up to the conference. I had to rebuild the club from ground up again. Regardless of what challenges I faced in my life, I have strong faith in myself and my abilities. I continued my effort with creating projects that differentiate us from other student clubs, empower new members with leadership skills and learning opportunities that they would never learn in classroom. Before my term ends, I’ve grew the club to a over 100 active members organization. I have to say that this has nothing to do with luck. Before I even start the real work in my revival initiative, I sat down with my team. I clearly told my team, one year later, we will win the most improved chapter award. In the one year journey, I didn’t tell this to anyone. In my heart, I keep reminding myself this. The purpose, my reason, and the end goal for taking over the club and revive the club, has nothing to do with improving my personal resume. It’s not about telling other people I’m president of a club. It’s about committing to a results that align with my own person mission, and this mission will serve other people and will change the world. It’s also not about being the best project manager that will execute flawless project. To me, it’s to become a macro manager that empower others, let other people reach their full potentials, stand out and shine. I told myself that the only outcome I wanted to achieve was to have sustainable stream of talents to lead the organization after I leave my position. With over 100 members actively participate in our activities, I was more than happy to step down from my leadership. The only thing I might regret a bit, is that I didn’t have time to show up the ACE conference following year. And Yes, we did won the most improved chapter award. Every vision and goal that I committed to in that year did happen! There might be a lot of things in life seems “impossible” to others, but to me, impossible spells “I’M POSSIBLE”!
I remember the difficult days and you both did the best you could with what little you had. When we see what we are today, we must always remember how you were the link to keep it alive. You could have just walked away, but instead, you remained steadfast…even with the knowledge that we were not going to do well. We learned much from that and our success today can be traced to your leadership. I did enjoy my jouney with you Pei.