The Rebel Within: Page to Practice

“When we challenge ourselves to move beyond what we know and can do well, we rebel against the comfortable cocoon of the status quo, improving ourselves and positioning ourselves to contribute more to our partners, coworkers, and organizations”

― Francesca Gino

What can we learn from authors about achieving personal and professional success?

Rebel Talent:

In this project, we read self-help books to gain insights surrounding human habits and behaviour. The book that I read was called Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life By Francesca Gino. It delved into themes surrounding how to practice rebel leadership, the act of knowing yourself well enough to be able to be your authentic self in any situation, personal or professional. The idea is that by doing this, you can be more comfortable, and confident, to gain more power over your endeavours.

A little bit more about the author: https://indy.craft.me/dSFiBXMm9TeXsg

After finishing the book there were around ten key takeaways that I believe could add value and behavioural insight to a reader’s life.

My ten key takeaways are:

Focusing on trying new things and seeking out novelty brings a boring (routine) lifestyle some vibrancy.
Don’t be afraid to disagree with others even if it could cause conflict, a certain amount of tension is healthy and everyone needs to hear diverse perspectives to grow.
Open conversations, don’t close them. Over communicating is key to helping others understand your goals and interests.
Reflect on more than your weaknesses, acknowledge the strengths you have in order to make them even stronger.
Don’t assume you know everything or anything. Believing you know everything is the beginning of the end of your learning journey.
Allow mistakes to happen, “happy accidents” can bring innovation to a maximum.
Doing more gives you more, don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone
Question the world, there may be rules in place, but true understanding of rebel talent comes from questioning why these rules are there to begin with.
Some habits are good, others can get in the way of progress, like the ones that pull us into comfort and conformity
Liking the status quo isn’t a bad thing, but make sure that you at least know how your conformity affects your life and the lives of people around you (aka lead yourself).

Author & Book Review:

As evidence of reading and comprehending the book, I created both a short, and long response review on Rebel Talent. The short one was posted on Goodreads, as an honest interpretation of what I read. The longer review acted as more of an essay-style multi-paragraph response, going in-depth into the interpretations and messages from the book.

Here is my longer-form response with all of my thoughts and ideas that came from the book: https://indy.craft.me/OzNSUlWWijNdrD

The Exhibition:

The exhibition this year was themed around Comic Con, so naturally we presented our learning via a panel discussion with 5 different books covering similar themes. My group consisted of myself, Erin B,Quinn S, Randy Y, andJakub H,with Ryder OG acting as our moderator. Our discussion took some time to come together, our first few practice ones needed some work, but at the exhibition, we pulled together a cohesive and insightful discussion. I was approached by some friends and family who came to watch, and they thought our conversation was interesting and well-spoken.

Decision Making:

Throughout this experience, decisions were a very prevalent aspect that guided both the project and the takeaways from the book. From the choice of which book to read, to what advice you agree or disagree with, personal and external decisions were being made from start to finish. These decisions were also calculated and thoughtful. For example, understanding what the book you were about to commit to was about, to be able to read the whole thing without getting bored. Or deciding which advice from your book would be too strange to take literally and apply to your everyday life.

More Evidence: https://indy.craft.me/x1Cjf0ymGON9c0

Back to the DQ:

To wrap up this final project, let’s make an answer to the driving question, what can we learn from authors about achieving personal and professional success? From authors like Francesca Gino, we can learn that personal and professional success comes from knowing and being confident in yourself. But understanding your habits and why you do what you do, you can learn how to push your boundaries and be more confident, leading to being an advocate for yourself and your ideas. People respect those who talk like they know what they’re doing, and who stand up for themselves.

Thank you for reading my final portfolio post!