Last week, I attended three sessions of the annual business symposium. The
titles of those three sessions were “Investing in Your Future”, “Finding Your Way: Let
Success Come Your Way”, and lastly, the keynote presentation, “Managing Distractions
in a Connected World”. All three were very helpful and inspiring.
The first event I had the honor of attending was “Investing in Your Future”. The
speaker was Danny Kyle, Senior Director of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. in Chicago. He
treated the session similar a discussion panel. The attendees got the chance to ask him
any question. One of the questions that stayed with me was about recovering from a
bad GPA in college. He let everyone know that GPA does not matter very much in the
real world because he would rather take a 2.5 student with a great personality than a
4.0 student with a dull personality. It is all about what you can offer to the company.
Next, I visited the “Finding Your Way: Let Success Come Your Way” session with
Darren Oglesby, the President/CEO of Oglesby Financial Group. He gave all of the
students and teachers in attendance great advice on how to be successful and the traits
of a successful person. One of the topics he talked about resonated with me. He stated,
“It’s not about how you start. It’s about how you finish.” He let us know he did not plan
on being a speaker when he was younger. He never imagined being where he is today
doing the job he has now chosen. Throughout his journey, he went through a few
different occupations before he settled on his current job.
Lastly, I attended the keynote presentation with Curt Steinhorst. He spoke about
distractions. Ironically, he admitted he was diagnosed with ADHD. He found tools to
help him alleviate those symptoms. He gives himself a few hours every day to be
“unconnected” from the world. He uses that time to spend with his family. He
emphasized the importance of not letting distraction make you miss out on the precious
moments in life.