On Monday, Patrick Hernandez, an alumni from General M, visited my capstone class and talked about his formula to be successful. Patrick interned with GM when he was a student of the PR program at BYU. When he finished his internship, GM really liked Patrick's project. Therefore, Patrick was asked to continue to work on the project while he was at school and he received a full-time offer at the same time. After 5 years working GM. Patrick is now the communications manager at GM. During his presentation, Patrick gave a lot of useful advice for career development. However, what struck me the most is his humility.
Patrick told us about his journey with GM. He said his passion was nonprofit PR. As a result, when the opportunity with GM came to him, he wasn't really interested. He believed that cars polluted the environment and working in the automotive industry would go against his ideology. However, lot of his friends encouraged him to take the opportunity and apply for the internship. From his story, I can tell that Patrick is a really talented person but he doesn't let the glamour and the success go to his head. Because of his humility, Patrick received a lot of support of from friends and thanks to his friends, Patrick took the life-changing opportunity and became a very successful person. What would Patrick have become if people hadn't liked him and consequently hadn't encouraged him to work for GM? At the end of his presentation, Patrick told us to be happy because a positive attitude is what keeps us go through this crazy world. He made sure each of us have questions for him and also brought treats for us! Isn't he awesome?
I know that being confidence yet humble at the same time can be challenging. The fine line between bragging and confidence is very thin, Therefore I plan to learn how to best represent myself and make people feel comfortable around me. I read somewhere that humble people "see happiness as a journey." Understanding the real values of life will definitely take me to where I want to be.
Thanks for your post Mia. I enjoyed reading about Patrick's story and what you learned from it. I think that you can tell he was humble because he listened to people's advice, and it sounds like that is what took his career in the direction that it went. If we are willing to ask for help and learn from others, we will go much further in life. It is important to find that balance between confidence and bragging like you said. As we learned in class, we need to be self-confident and aware of our strengths and accomplishments, without flaunting them. I think that one of the tricks to doing that is being humble.
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