I’ve been there too.

Okay. I don’t know if you have.

The feeling of looking at this preposterously cool-looking startup hustling bubble thing and thinking “I wish that was me but how the hell does one get there”. I’m so normal. I don’t even know what a startup is.

I guess I won’t lose anything if I still apply to the Startuplifers team to see what it’s all about.

If the feeling resonates, here’s to you:

It’s about the mindset.

So I was interviewing for the marketing position and all I could do was to tell the truth about why I wanted to work for Startuplifers: because I simply can’t get greater kicks out of anything else than helping other people to thrive and release their potential to the fullest. And that did it.

It’s my first week. I’m not sure how to open a file on Premiere Pro. I ask a colleague for help. He opens Google and looks up the answer for me. It’s not like anyone knows much. They just know how to go for what they yet don’t have.

I talked to lots of alumni and fresh Lifers. They’re all driven by curiousness and just not making too big of a fuzz about getting uncomfortable every now and then (=often!)

It’s a funny, rational way of seeing the world and things. They’re no biggies. San Francisco is no biggie. Open Google and find out what you don’t know. If you still don’t know, ask someone who knows someone who knows. And then start working on what you need but what you yet don’t have. And they’re really good at what they’re good at, because they’ve had that mentality all the way from day 1.

So while working for this crazy orchestra of efficient, energetic weirdos, one thing in particular
triumphed everything else.

It’s the people.

The First Startuplifers Alumni Meetup in August 2017. It was my third day.

 

I found that students who got into our program and that came to our events, did interviews and landed jobs all had certain qualities in common.

  • They don’t contemplate too much. If something sounds cool, they go for it.
  • They’re easy-going but don’t take the easy path. Their ambition has lead them to pursue higher degrees and solve uphill battle problems.
  • They’re social and they help you out. They seek to spend time with fellow Finns and Swedes and reply quickly. They even write you blogs if they have to.
  • They’re deep in tech but enlightened about everything in life. Talk politics, sports, international relations, entrepreneurship, price comparing – you’ve got a buddy!
  • They keep in touch. All those alumni events we’ve held, all those beers and get-togethers. Old and new faces, every time. Startuplifers is a uniting thing.

A year has passed by since I applied to the Startuplifers team. I’m still very normal. One thing has changed though.

The mindset.

I know that I don’t know a lot. But I’ve assured myself to be able to learn almost anything I put my time into. I also know that I will never learn anything if I’m not surrounded by people that challenge me to make a second curve.

We are those people. Startuplifers is those people. I owe a life to this community for making me a bit more hustly and a bit less shy.

Let them – let us – help you, too.

Love from Stanford (yes, I realized I could and I should apply for a summer program here),

Laura
@latakki