The Vision From 15yr Old Taiwo 👧🏾

In August of 2016, I bought a one-way ticket from Philly to San Fran.

I quickly learned that it was mostly non-native residents who refer to San Francisco as San Fran and joined the Bay Areaaaa club.

I was leaving my full-time job at an investment company to carve my way into the tech space. I was very much over done with doing work that had little to do with my passion and more to do with making a living. I wanted to make a life.

View fullsize

What initially began as a contract at LinkedIn quickly turned into a full-time role, ultimately leading to collecting 3+ years of memories at one of the best companies I’ve worked at. I can still recall riding our LinkedIn branded blue bikes around campus, eating free breakfast in whichever cafeteria was serving egg-white omelets, attending team off-sites on a boat, and traveling for Sales Kickoffs in Vegas. All perks aside, I got to work with some amazing people, but the real prize was knowing that I was where God called me to be. 

✍🏾 First, write the vision 

I’ve always been a believer of writing things down; dreams, ideas, feelings — all of it. Writing in the moment helps me remember things as they happened and how they made me feel. When I was in high school, I was oddly very passionate about building my Myspace page. I didn’t know it then, but it was my first real desire to be a Creator. There was something about building something meaningful, something of value – for people who interacted with my page, and the thought of it energized me. To the point where I found myself spending an embarrassing number of hours creating. At that age, it was merely a thought, but many years later, I learned that just one thought can change your life.

A few months into my new life as a Bay Area resident, I decided to write down the vision that was planted in my heart back in my teenage years. That vision has been refined and polished over the years and has helped me make career changing decisions from LinkedIn, to Facebook, and now Instagram. Till today, I still hold onto the vision from 15yr old Taiwo.

💡 but turning the vision into reality isn’t always simple

I was scrolling through my explore page on Instagram and saw a scripture that read “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” and since reading it, nothing has been the same.

That verse has been an encouraging word for me in the toughest seasons of my life. It has motivated me to press on with faith and boldness as I actualize this vision. I even got it painted on my 1s as a reminder (pictured below).

Boldness for me meant sliding into DMs. YES, I said it. During my job searching season, I (professionally) slid into a Hiring Manager’s LinkedIn DMs and told him why I’m a good fit for a role on his team. If there’s one thing my sales career taught me, it’s that ‘we miss 100% of the shots we don’t take.’ The author of this quote was correct. If I didn’t slide into his DMs, the chances of a former sales Account Executive getting to the final interview for a Program Manager role she had absolutely NO experience for – would’ve been slim to none. 

I exercised faith when I decided to pivot into user experience research without a PhD or master’s degree in HCI, a space my experience would say I’m not qualified to be but felt called to it. Thankfully, I didn’t let imposter syndrome stop me or I would’ve missed out on celebrating a promotion in my first year as a Researcher.

🌫Now, make it plain

At age 15 I didn’t understand the power of a thought, but14 years later I’ve witnessed how a single thought can transform a life. At least that’s my story, and I just hope 15yr old Taiwo is prada me. It has been said – If turning a vision into a reality was simple, there would be more people to tell the story.

I can attest to the lack of simplicity in this journey. It wasn’t something that happened overnight, rather over time. To make it plain, I had a thought that I believed in, coupled with a God I believe in and today I’m living in that reality.

〰T.

This journal entry was inspired by Habakkuk 2:2