Blog Entries

Here are my thoughts and ideas about my leadership journey! Come along this splendid ride with me as we face new perspectives and ideas!

Entry 1: Management VS. Leadership

To start off, the quote “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things,”  by Peter Drucker portrays the idea that managing ensures that the necessary components of something are completed, while leadership uses those components to amplify morality and serve a purpose. An example showcasing this quote is Rihanna launching Fenty Beauty in 2017 with over 40 different shades of foundation. The beauty industry struggled with selling darker shades for darker girls. Rihanna took note of this issue, creating a brand with darker shades of foundation, as well as catering to different undertones and various skin types. She became a leader who “wanted everyone to be included” and by doing so her brand changed the world of makeup. Rihanna wanted a makeup brand, but what made her a leader is how dedicated she was to her consumers and how inclusive she made her brand. Another example can be seen through my own work experience where I became a supervisor. My top priority at work was to make sure closing went fine, cash was counted properly, and overall the place ran smoothly. Later on, I realized true leadership was about supporting my co workers, taking their feedback and acting as a role model. I learned that management is important because it helps systems run smoothly, but being a leader is of greater importance because it helps you become someone others can rely on, provide direction to, and achieve a positive work environment.

Khachatryan, Jasmine. “Fenty Beauty Marketing Case Study: How Rihanna Rewired the Beauty Industry,” TCF Team, February 10th, 2026, https://www.tcf.team/blog/fenty-beauty-marketing-case-study.

Entry 2: Failure

What are your thoughts on the concept of failure?

Entry 3: The Magic of Thinking Big, Chapter 1

What were some of the messages that stood out to you from this chapter and why?

The Magic of Thinking Big, Chapter 1 was very eye opening to me, someone who lives with a constant negative mindset. I regularly use phrases like "I'll do it but I don't think it'll be good” and “there is no point in trying". Many of the ideas in this text combat my mindset. In regards to the first phrase, the Magic of Thinking Big states that when our own minds disbelieve from the start, we attract reasons for disbelieving and this is why we are more likely to fail. Our mindset is the biggest part to our success. With thinking success, our minds condition themselves to pursue and produce success. Something else that sparked a thought is thinking big. My cousin always tells me how she always thinks bigger and better and this can be seen through her jobs. She never limits herself to stay comfortable but always strives to be better and more. She started off working as a waitress, with little pay and a very bad environment, then stepped up and went to a health and supplement store. From there she actively searched for new jobs, made connections and got a position at a hospital with many benefits. Even with this amazing job, she's still looking for more and searching for internships and a greater job. She tells me all the time how there is no point in thinking so small, when you're worth so much more. The Magic of Thinking Big showcased this through its point 3 of how to develop belief. It says that the size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. 

 

What gets in the way of positive thinking? Opinion: How does positive/negative thinking determine success?

I think that many things get in the way of positive thinking. As humans we always look at the negative and this can be seen through our moods. When we're going about our day, we never recall the 50 good things that happened but always the 1 negative moment that soured our mood. This is known as Negativity Bias. Other examples that get in the way of positive thinking are the lack of confidence, the fear of failure and comparing yourself to others. What people don't take into account is that successful people aren't born successful, but are made through hard work and dedication. Many "successful" people went through a journey of acquiring qualities such as confidence which take time. However, the more you change your mindset little by little, it leads you one step closer to becoming successful. I think the more negative you think the more likely you are to be unsuccessful. This is because when we are positive we have feelings that allow us to believe in ourselves and know that if we work hard enough we can achieve whatever we strive for. When our negative thoughts fuel our success all that is achieved   is things like constant overthinking and self destruction, making it harder to strive for success. 

 

When you wake up in the morning to go to school, what voice do you hear – Mr. Triumph or Mr. Defeat? What does this voice sound like? Does this voice change throughout the day? How does this voice impact how you feel/what you accomplish on any given day?

In the morning, I wake up to Mr. Defeat and as I said before I'm a very negative person.  Throughout my day, I feel like I mask my negativity with Mr. Triumph. I find myself avoiding things, saying “this is okay or “this is how I improve” but I never find myself striving for improvement. I use Mr. Triumph to cover up the Mr. Defeat ingrained within my thoughts. As I go to school, Mr. Triumph takes over but back when I'm at home he disappears and Defeat is back. Both make me reflect on what I've accomplished and to be honest, I have very limited aspirations and passions. I'm not the type to pursue goals and strive for accomplishments and I feel like because of this mindset and lack of motivation Mr. Defeat is always present. 

Entry 4: Organizations in the New Workplace

What are your thoughts on women-only workspaces? Explain your answer from both a societal/personal and leadership/management perspective.  Tie the Pixar Spark Shorts film into your answer strategically.

Limiting the workplace to one gender isn't a beneficial thing in my opinion. Although women only work spaces are empowering as can be seen through the CBC video, I think that it just creates a sense of community not diversity. Diversity is something that's really important to me because it allows us as humans to understand people with different races, ideas, age groups and in this case genders. It's important to look at various viewpoints because in the end we learn from our own experiences and other peoples. In the Purl video, due to the workplace being restricted to one gender, the yarn ball felt the need to conform. Purl projects her loss of identity onto the new yarn ball however then realizes that this exclusion should not be allowed. In the end, an inclusive environment is made. I think that to be a good leader you must not favor and should treat everyone equally regardless of gender, race and age because it creates a better work environment. Leaders are meant to support co-workers, not meant to exclude them and create a space where they are unable to be themselves. 

 

Out of all the employee perks mentioned above, which do you believe would you enjoy the most and/or look for in a future occupation/employment and why?

Airbnb - gives its employees an annual stipend of $2,000 to travel and stay in an Airbnb listing anywhere in the world. I would totally use this perk because it gives you $2000 yearly for a vacation. I think that's a really good offer and travelling is something I love to do. You could totally pay 700 for a flight and use the rest on your trip and it would decrease your expenses for your vacation. 

 

What stood out to you the most about Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy? How can you apply this in your own life?

Embrace your followers as equals and take initiative. A leader shouldn't be above someone else but beside them. True leadership isn't about controlling and demanding but about supporting and listening. To implement this in my life, I would ask for criticism and feedback when I'm in a leadership role. Asking people questions about how to improve will ultimately improve your skills. Taking initiative is also really important. It takes guts to be the first follower or even the dancing guy but as you step more and more out of your comfort zone, confidence develops. Something simple like raising a hand in class or presenting can help implement confidence into my life. 

 

What are your thoughts on a 4 day workweek? How might this work for all? What about teaching professions? First responders? Students in school (elementary etc).  Pros and cons? 

I support it immensely. If the numbers aren't being affected and if it slightly improved them I think it should be essential. It allows people to feel less stressed and have more time for work life balance. That is something I care about a lot which is why I'm trying to pick a university with a good school life balance. It's important to have fun because you only live one life and what's the point of life if it's spent working a 9-5 five of the seven days. In the UAE, specifically the city Sharjah (I used to live in Dubai), they changed their whole system to a 4 day work and school week. I think that teachers and students could use a break especially when you get into the last year of high school. This time is literally stressful for everyone and I think that a longer weekend would be better for everyone. I think that the pros would be the happiness of the people, better work-life balance, less stress, and you'd be more productive. I honestly don't see cons for this and if workload is managed efficiently and well, it would be really beneficial to society.

Entry 5: Excusitis

Which points stood out to you the most? Why? Connect with personal stories.
A quote that stood out to me the most was “While I'm on this Earth, I'm going to live. Why be only half alive? Every minute a person spends worrying about dying is just one minute that fellow might as well have been dead.” This quote resonated with me immensely because I'm a firm believer that life is meant to be enjoyed instead of being wasted on pointless things. The chapter mentioned habits everyone makes and those habits being excuses. The more we say “I’ll have fun after this is over or I'm too busy” the more we get engrossed with Excusitis. So many of us fall into cycles where we prioritize expectations, stress as well as various other excuses to limit ourselves from growth and happiness, but why? Why should we let excuses control how we live our lives? Societal pressures make us conform to set life timelines where we go to school, get a job, marry, and then retire. As long as I've come to understand myself I know that path isn't meant for me. I'd much rather explore the world, see new places, and meet new people. My friends and I always say “let's do it, we only live once” to the most stupid stuff because at the end of the day the things you want to get completed, will get completed. That's also why I'm writing this blog entry the day before it's due because I chose to focus on having fun and making memories. My family also always tells me to save money for my tuition instead of living in residence. I'm paying for my own tuition and I want to go to McMaster but even though it's very close, I want to make new memories. School is important but so is having fun and living my life. I'd much rather be successful in memories and life than successful while dead and constrained to pointless expectations and stress. Excuses limit our brains of exploration so why would I make excuses when I can live life to my fullest potential and fulfil my self actualization needs. Excusitis deprives us of opportunities to become the best version of ourselves and fulfilling these needs. Another point that stood out to me is why some brilliant people are failures like the example Phi Beta Kappa. I found myself relating to him. I often tell myself and my friends that I've caused my own downfall. It might seem egotistical of me, but I genuinely believe when I actually study and put in good effort, I am capable of achieving high success and this can be reflected in my past school grades. I used to be a 95 student however as life went on I've just been tanking and not caring about school. My lack of motivation, will as well as procrastination are things I blame and make excuses with regarding my failures. I find myself similarly making excuses that allow me to produce negative results. Due to this, I've realized that when negative thinking guides our brains, nothing is created nor destroyed. Instead of using my brain to look for ways to succeed, I tend to look for ways to fail and this is causing me to get in my own way. To improve myself, I need to shift my thinking away from excuses and toward taking responsibility to work for success. I can't achieve success by doing nothing, it must be earned.

 

What are YOUR excuses? Be honest.
I have many excuses that I blame for my failures. I often find myself procrastinating because I hate doing school work. It's not enjoyable to me and that's why I scrape the deadlines. I know that I'll get something done which is why I put it off and just use the excuse “I work better under pressure anyway.” I feel stuck in a cycle because of this excuse. I delay business leadership to the last day, I become overwhelmed by all the work, I don't do the work because I know I’ll get it done, I rush the work leading to worse results, and then I make more excuses during the week that make me do it all on the Sunday, then the cycle repeats. Other excuses I have are “I have work or I have a test.” My lack of time management skills causes me to constantly make excuses for not completing things on time or taking accountability. An example would be my mom telling me to clean my room. I make so many excuses like I work in an hour or I can't clean I have a test. Another excuse I tend to make very often and I mean ALL the time is "I've done so much work, I need a break.” I always use this excuse to stop doing my work and just go on Tik Tok or Instagram knowing I only did 1 question. Something I use as a secret excuse is making food. I search for ways to try to eat something because I hate eating while doing work so I do it to stop working. It's something I do because I genuinely cannot focus on doing both things at once so I constantly do this to avoid studying or doing my assignment.

 

As per this reading, it mentions that 95% of us have Intelligence excusitis in varying degrees. Have you ever told yourself you weren’t smart enough? When? Why? Did this limit you?
Yes I have multiple times. One instance I remember particularly well was in Advanced Functions. We had a test for Unit 4 sinusoidal functions and I had a low mark in the class already. I spent one whole week studying for this test and I felt so confident. When we got our marks back I got a 50% on the test. I was so upset and cried for so long. I literally never studied and all my marks before were higher than that. For a while I would tell myself “what's the point in studying, I'm not smart anyway so it's useless.” However, my grade was dropping a lot so I had to do something. Thankfully I did well the rest of the course and then I also took a booster course in the summer to increase my mark. Looking back, I made many excuses while studying for that test. I would repeatedly get distracted, go on my phone, and study just to study not to actually prepare and understand.

 

What does this reading suggest about luck - good or bad? Why do we so commonly look to the success of others and tell ourselves that some people are just luckier in this world than others? How does this line of thought limit our potential?
This reading indicates that luck is something that makes no sense and I agree. I believe luck simply doesn't exist. What I believe is we have a set fate and things we are meant to do. People say you can not change your fate but I believe when you change it, that was already your fate to begin with and what you're doing is just following the path assigned for you. I think the same about luck. It's just a concept of chance but is it really chance or just something humans came up with to satisfy their egos? People look at others for success and say they are luckier due to multiple factors. Examples would be they think the person lacks the proper qualifications, they feel envy or jealousy and another reason is all we see is the surface, not the effort and hard work they put in to achieve success. This is why we paint their achievements as “dumb luck” just to help us feel better about our own accomplishments. This greatly limits our own potential. Blaming something like luck for your own failures is like closing a door before it's even opened. No opportunity for growth is put in place, just like dominos lined up. There needs to be some effort and push to start a chain reaction but if you believe your bad luck is the cause of your failures, you'll never start anything. It's quite similar to negative thinking. If you think negatively you attract negative and bad luck works the same way. If you think like that everything that goes wrong in your life causes you to question if it's just your bad luck not your own excuses, actions and flaws. By doing this you limit your potential to grow, succeed and develop a mindset where you can see yourself succeeding.