How do you turn nothing into something? Making progress towards a lofty goal may seem like a distant dream. You can probably see public figures or friends/family excelling at whatever they do. Have they been like this since they were born? Is this through skill and hard work? Either way, the theme remains the same: they have turned their nothing into something. Despite everyone knowing that it all depends on luck, skill, timing, and many other factors to succeed in our goals, attitude and commitment are the prerequisites.
I hope to bring light on turning nothing into something can be found from the past, even in seemingly insignificant events. Since this personal event, I was able to pursue otherwise impossible results to my life: promoted collaboration and relationships with others, and pursued leadership results, and proactively landed awesome roles towards my Finance career. All it took was to draw on past experiences for confidence towards current goals and ambitions.
Promoting Trade in the Fourth Grade
In my fourth-grade class, my classmates were siloed in their own circle of friends, rarely creating new relationships other. At best, students would have brief interactions on each other’s apparel, lunch boxes, pencil cases, and other items brought to school. It made me feel that the relationship with each other can be improved. Then a thought hit me. What if there could be something to inspire my fellow classmates to go further than basic interactions and to create relationships involving everyone meaningfully? The word that came to mind was: Trade.
At home, I found construction paper lying around. I then drew and cut the bills that looked like the ones from monopoly, only crummier. Each color represented a different monetary amount. The following day, I brought these freshly made currencies to class. During a class break, I proposed and showed the closest students around me to trade with these bills. Most of them just thought I was weird and went back to their conversations, which was fair.
As I began putting away my currency (and hurt confidence), one of my classmates asked if she could partake in this activity. I gave her $10 of the $1000. Using the money, I gave her, she purchased my unused notebook and my pencil case – both of which I was hoping to trade out. Another classmate witnessed this transaction and wanted in as well.
He decided to sell me his eraser for a few of my currencies and began a trading triangle with each other. By the end of that day, 10 of my classmates were actively trading and having fun interacting with each other. A week later, the entire class was involved. It became an activity that students were looking forward to participating in during the break.
The trading was thriving. I witnessed new relationships and friendships forming as they put themselves in front of each other to communicate about their items and why they were selling or buying them. I would see new interactions take place during break and after class. That’s when I discovered that I liked to get a feeling of collaboration. To see others enjoy each other’s existence was a dream come true.
Sadly, there was only one student who did not participate and seemed annoyed at these efforts. He also happened to be one of the students who turned away from my idea. Despite reaching out to him to join, he reported the trading activity to the teacher. Soon after, the teacher announced that this activity needed to cease.
Conclusion
On the most part, my classmates and I had a blast. Here are my takeaways:
– I can turn nothing into something, and now I have the confidence to make things happen going forward
– I discovered that I really like to facilitate creating friendships and collaboration – thus, making giving away my notebook and my pencil case 100% worth it
– Progress toward Innovation and Creativity materializes only after acting on them. How quickly you execute is entirely up to you.
I will describe more stories of achievements that build from this experience in future posts. It is never too late or too early to do whatever you want to achieve. Taking the first step, regardless of the outcome, is literally one step towards progress. Self-prescribing failure is much deadlier than failure because you will regretfully eliminate the 100% possibility of achieving the goal.
None of my accomplishments affect anyone else or change the world in any way (yet 
). They are still my steps of progress, and I have been turning nothing into something. The aggregate sum of all my experiences continues to validate that I can do anything. As long as you are still alive, you can at least try to embrace and adapt to the struggles that come with your goals. Let’s see how far your ideas can get! Feel free to share your journey and/or discuss thoughts about the topic. Whatever happens, you are probably not alone. Excited for you. Next read: Lead Anywhere – Achievement Series (Part 2). Cheers ^-^