What do you consider the main achievements in your life?
As I grew older, I realized that there is no end to the desire for achievements. I consider an achievement is something which makes a person better than they were yesterday. There will be days in our lives where we feel down but getting up and going again is important, especially standing up for yourself when we have no one to support us.
I have helped and mentored many women as I move along in my professional journey, and I consider this as my biggest achievement. Being a Microsoft MVP has given me a great opportunity to meet many professionals across the world to whom I could share my technical expertise with. I share my knowledge and expertise to the SQL communities across the world through speaking at various national and international conferences. Through this journey, I have helped other professionals and supported them as much as I can. I consider this as one of my achievements.
What drives you to be at the top of your game? What are your success strategies?
- Being comfortable with the change. I believe change is the only constant thing in life. The more we are flexible to change, the more opportunities we get.
- Seeing things clearly for as they are. If we are not good at something, there is nothing wrong in it. The difference comes on how you see it. I believe being very honest in ourselves is the first step in recognizing what we are not good at so we can get better at by working on them.
- Seeing weakness as your absolute strengths. It is much easier to work on our strengths than our weakness but working on our weakness will give us the opportunity to grow beyond the horizons of strengths.
- Understanding oneself from inside. When we are on this path of the journey, you will find pleasing or gaining validation from others doesn’t matter anymore in life. Life is much bigger than what we think it is.
- There is no short shortcut for success. The more work you do, the better results you receive. There is no replacement for hard work. The work that you do when no one is watching matters the most.
Have you dealt with failure? If so, how did you overcome it and resurge when all the chips were down?
I do not consider the incidents I faced in my life as failures cause I see them as the most important situations that I needed to face in my life to be here today, on this platform answering these questions. Sometimes, we need to face hardships in life which will hurt us to the core of our being that can bring you down to the lowest point in our lives. I faced these situations as well where I was at the darkest dungeon of my life with no light and no way out.
As I go deep in understanding about myself and about life, I came to a point where I decided to move forward and decided to stand up for myself. I was so tired of looking for the external sources to support me but if I didn’t stand up for myself, it is unfair to ask for help from others. The day I decided to standup for myself is the day my life took a turn.
I slowly build my confidence bit by bit by speaking up. I started speaking in conferences, national and international. I spoke about technical and women in technology related topics. I decided to support other women who faced similar challenges like me. I became a voice to the women who didn’t had the voice to speak on the challenges they face as a women in workforce. I started to speak about how everyone can support women and become an ally in supporting them. If I look back on my journey, I feel that if I didn’t have those hardships in my life, I would not have been where I am today.
How easy was it for you to speak up and share your story when times were tough?
It was rough and tough for me at the time. It took me years to stand up for myself. I understood that there would be no one but myself who can save me. Once I decided to stand up for myself, it was very scary at first to share my story because I didn’t know how others will perceive. Later, I understood it doesn’t matter. I came to a point where I don’t need any validation but if my story could help other women realize that they are not alone, that will be a meaningful to me.
As I shared my experiences, many women resonated with my story, and they started shared their experiences which made me realize that this is a much bigger problem than I thought. Many women go through challenges at their workplaces and they need a voice to share their story. I am trying my best to be the voice for these women and bring awareness to the much bigger problem we have in this society.
What did you have to do in order to be able to share your story to inspire others?
Being bold, standing up and speak up on your story. Every story has unique value, and every story is worth listening to.
Be bold and do not be afraid to make a difference in this world!