Leaders of the Future

Personal Introduction:

Hi everyone! My name is Emerson Pang and I am a grade 12 student at Bur Oak Secondary School. Today's I had the pleasure to attend the Illuminate National High School Leadership Conference with over 170 students globally. Here is my blog which strives to highlight what I learned about leadership, financing, and the mindset to achieve success.

Body Blog Content:

“Leaders need to provide strategy and direction and to give employees the tools that enable them to gather information and insight from around the world. Leaders shouldn’t try to make every decision.”

— Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

Morning Activity Name:

1. The key takeaway was to work hard and always persist through failure.

Workshop #1: CPA Ontario Pitch

From the first workshop, I learned how important persistence is to achieve success, especially after failures. This was the key lesson from Alina's story of perseverance of taking part in Hackathons and eventually getting her dream job, even though she did not make Ivy League.

Workshop #2: Concentra Leadership Workshop

The Concentra Leadership workshop really taught me the importance of managing my finances and preparing for the future. For instance, the workshop discussed different types of investment options I could utilize and also informed me to begin investing as soon as possible as it will better my financial position in the future.

Deloitte Keynote:

The Deloitte Keynote inspired me to stay motivated and always work harder to achieve success.

Entrepreneurship and leadership know no boundaries.

I consider myself an entrepreneur because I enjoy thinking outside of the box and viewing situations from multiple perspectives to optimize my final solutions and decisions. For instance, if I had $5 in my pocket, I would investigate and pursue different strategies to grow that $5 into a larger investment and get my business off the ground where it can begin to grow and prosper. Moreover, I strive to maintain a strong work ethic of hard work and persistence and might even start my own business in the future. Lastly, if I do not pursue entrepreneurship, I will still utilize the critical thinking mindset throughout my career wherever that may be.

Closing Blog Content:

1. I am very passionate about pursuing business and this conference has inspired me to work hard and persist through failure to achieve my goals.

2. One piece of advice about leadership is that it requires lots of patience and empathy as you will need to listen, communicate, and understand others in order to be an effective leader.