Wow! Have you ever been to a conference that made you feel inspired? The Berkeley-Haas Alumni Conference on April 27 did just that!

It was great to be back on the Berkeley campus, being in awe with the student life, meandering through the streets finding parking, catching glimpses of Lyft drivers taking passengers around town, and absorbing knowledge and insights from great minds.

Today’s blog content drew from inspirations cultivated by speakers and presenters at the Berkeley-Haas Alumni conference, offering a blended perspectives from our Dean Lyon, award-winning professors, and real-life entrepreneurs.

I am going to cherry pick and share with you 1-2 compelling articulation from each speaker/presenter.

Platform, the Sharing Economy and Business Model Innovation:

Today, every company is a software company, because of our desire to utilize technology and data analytics to help us make decisions about how to maximize output of an organization, to improve production efficiency that has direct impact on the company’s growth and its revenues.

Venture Capital Perspectives:

In addition to VCs interviewing you, you should interview VCs whom you are seeking funding from so that you understand their expectations, and they understand your circumstances.

You should always be honest with your investors on where you stand, and see your investors as your eyes and ears because they have a vested interest in your company.

HaasX Ideas Worth Sharing:

Art of Pivoting. It’s not about what you do when you fall down. It’s about what you do when you get back up. Sometimes you do have to give up in your start-up company. If you do, don’t see that as a failure, but take time to find yourself again, and look into yourself to find another passion that will help move you forward.

Idea Generation: You need to expose to new ideas in order to foster new ideas and make your ideas better.

The Accidental Entrepreneur:  Heroic entrepreneurship is not about being the next Google, the next Bill Gate or Steve Jobs, it’s about being yourself and serving the community by doing things that make a difference.

Disruptive Personal Branding: Embrace yourself; value diversity; create values for others; grow and cultivate relationships, emphasize on depth vs. breadth; post not just professional achievements, also include flaws, challenges, triumphs, and successes.

Embrace Awkward Conversations. You cannot go through life and be true to yourself if you keep avoiding awkward conversations when you ought to be upfront and honest. Having awkward conversations give you lenses to see the truth about a situation when you are stuck, and could help you realize how to make it better.

I hope you will find the curated content shared out inspiring, and get you up to inspire others in your work and personal lives. I went away from the Berkeley-Haas campus feeling fulfilled, as I have adopted a set of tools that enables me to be honest with my work and personal achievements, and follow some of these guide posts to be a better version of myself.

Source:  Berkeley-Haas Alumni Conference April 2017