Rebel, Rebel.

Hello Everyone!!

Welcome to my blog! The past few months I’ve been working on my final PGP course. Throughout our class we’ve learned a lot of valuable information, ranging from résumés to self improvement.

A primary focus of our course, was to read and analyze a self improvement book. Then utilize the lessons within that book to create a project representative of what we had learned. Our project would finally be displayed at an exhibition open to our peers and friends within our school community.

Leading up to our main project, we focused on applications (for both work and post secondary) we had multiple guest speakers (many were alumni from my own school)  within different age groups and specialties.

Listening to a variety of people, helped me expand my own plans, allowing me to consider different options after grade 12. Overall hearing from so many successful alumni from my school was incredibly reassuring and truly fascinating.

Throughout the next few weeks we continued to plan for future events/scenarios. We focused on perfecting résumés, and learned about topics such as applications and budgeting.

Leading up to December we began discussing our project and selected the improvement books we were most interested in. I chose the novel “Rebel Talent” by Francesca Gino.

I was originally drawn to this book because taking more risks was a huge goal of mine going into this school year, and at this point I felt I had been playing it safe with a lot of my work. I was very fascinated in the thesis and themes the book featured and excited to implement them into my own life.

A Poster I created summarizing “Rebel Talent”
“Rebel Talent” written by Professor Francesca Gino, is a book dedicated to readers seeking a genuine and healthy path to success. It is additionally focused on individuals with occupations that require collaboration, productivity and leadership. Within “Rebel Talent” Professor Gino argues that adopting ‘Rebel’ ideals and breaking societal constraints can lead to greater happiness and productivity. Within the eight chapters of “Rebel Talent” Professor Gino recounts stories of Rebels overtime. She pulls examples from contrasting worlds spanning from trenches in France to NBA courts and Harvard classrooms, displaying how diverse and widespread ‘Rebel Talent’ can be. Professor Gino combines these exciting true stories with her own research as a Professor of Buisness at Harvard. Utilizing her academic background to create an equally entertaining and informative writing style. Throughout the book, specifically the first few chapters, Professor Gino does a great job of explaining her idea of ‘Rebel Talent’ and how it relates to successful people and events. As the chapters progress, the focus on her thesis begins to shift. While I personally enjoyed reading about different examples of Rebel Talent, I do believe Professor Gino’s ideas would’ve been better encapsulated in fewer stories. For example the chapter featuring Captain Scully a famous pilot, known for landing flight 1549 into the Hudson River. Within the chapter featuring his story, there was engaging storytelling and anecdotes but much less connection to self improvement and the main themes present in the majority of the book. While I still enjoyed reading this chapter and learning more about a heroic individual, this story didn’t quite connect to ‘Rebel Talent’ in the same way that most chapters did. While this book did positively impact me, I did have higher expectations. I overall found that many of the examples drifted from what Professor Gino was trying to explain, making some chapters difficult to complete. Although I definetly agree with Professor Gino’s thesis and consider her idea of ‘Rebel Talent’ incredibly valuable, I simply wish that there was fewer examples and more information regarding how to adopt ‘Rebel Talent’ into everyday scenarios.

Overall I truly enjoyed “Rebel Talent” I found the main ideas prevalent in Gino’s book to be incredibly helpful. There was specifically one study Gino mentioned that I found incredibly useful. Gino explained in one of the earliest chapters that changing small aspects of your presentation or overall appearance can enforce confidence and help you embody “Rebel Talent”. She argued that something as small as a pair of comfortable shoes could drastically impact your mindset.

I found this idea so useful, that I decided to center my project around it. I wanted to demonstrate at our exhibition, just how applicable and simple this aspect of “Rebel Talent” could be.

 

 

 

Added: Overall I’m very proud of how my project turned out and the information I shared with my fellow students. Through this course I feel I’ve gained a lot of information that’s made me more confident in my future. I feel more prepared and equipped to take on upcoming experiences.

See you later!!!

– K

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