Life is like investing in a venture, Gerald Chan, a biotechnology entrepreneur and philanthropist told graduates of Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business on Thursday in an address peppered with poignant life lessons.
“No wonder that life can be at times so scary and at other times so exhilarating,” he said. “Even if you were not investing monetarily, every action of your’s in life is an investment of your time.”
Any entrepreneur understands that their business requires commitment and dedication to nurture and grow. What many people don’t understand is that life works the same way. You have to put in effort and give it time for it to grow into something meaningful and extraordinary. It has its ups and downs, but just like a successful business, one needs to understand that quitting is not an option.
We make many decisions in our life without much consideration or research, believing that the consequences could be easily dealt with. Here also we can learn from the business world, never make decisions without doing a proper background check. We gave books of accounts and balance sheets when it comes to businesses, but when it comes to people we invest our time and energy on, it gets a little tricky. Of course there is social media, but no one can say how much we can rely on that to get to know a person, someone could seem like the best of what humanity has to offer because that is how they portray themselves; that is the image they put out there. However, it still is important to get to know a person, or even an activity or, a hobby before you invest your time in it and make it a part of your life. How you live your life can influence many people, if you follow your dreams, people will look up to you and it just might inspire someone else to do the same.
It is rightly said that “Your life is how you make it”.
Anushka Singh