Marc Rubin '20 | Ridgewood, NJ
Major | Economics
Minor | Real Estate & Philosophy
Many people on this trip are using it to build their network and and apply lessons learned to their own ventures. I however do not have a venture and have been utilizing the incredible experiences of industry leaders to inform my next steps in life.
I still an not sure exactly where will life will take me, but so far I've heard from just about everyone that this is more normal than not and should not be construed as a negative. Every single person I have talked excel far beyond most people in passion, intelligence, and hard work. I think of these really as the keys to success. What has inspired me so much about this insight is that two of three are 100% within my control. And in fact, hard work becomes fun when it's with regards to something you are passionate about.
We have talked to a wide variety of startups and venture capitalist, but only one, Zipline places positive impact on the world front and center. The CEO found that working for a traditional for profit company that the "problems" he was solving really didn't mean anything. Why spend all time shortening how long it takes to get coffee when he could be saving lives. This is something I discovered in considering a typical job in Real Estate vs an impact focused career; something I have experience with working on a social venture in Sierra Leone. I however want to employ an entrepreneurial mindset that I have developed at Lehigh to solve these challenging and important problems. I need to spend this next semester thinking deeply about a problem that I am passionate about, and then think about solutions regardless of my lack of engineering ability or background. It will likely require some deep introspection and imagination, but it can be done. It is all about realizing my passion and then putting my head down and plowing forward.