Today, I passed many flower stands on my walk to the third site tour, Guinness Enterprise Center (GEC), and on my shopping excursion throughout shopping area, Grafton Street. As one who loves plants and flowers, I of course stopped to admire them and as one may say, “stop and smell the roses.” At surface level, I saw the beauty in these seemingly perfect bouquets as well as a perfect opportunity for some great photos. As I sit here in my bed writing this post, I reflect back on my days leading up to today and can’t help but pick out the common thread. The flowers I saw today in itself symbolize my journey thus far: bloom where you are planted. Flowers tend to endure the endless conditions of the seasons as well as the weather. Rain or shine, I noted they were able to withstand the unpredictable weather. Flowers don’t always have a choice where they grow, nor the conditions they are given. Their flexibility and ability to adapt is key to survival. Despite willingly choosing to plant myself here in Dublin, Ireland, the past few days have been a testament to working on being flexible and adaptive to various challenges and situations that I have encountered. Much like many of the conditions have been out of my control, I have gotten better at navigating the trials I have faced as well as working with what I have. In a sense, I feel that I am learning how to bloom here in Ireland.

In business, I think the same saying can be said when employing an entrepreneurial mindset. In today’s visit to the GEC, we learned that in entrepreneurship one of the key elements to success is being able to improvise and having flexibility. The GEC talked about many of their challenges they faced such as needing a new roof, COVID-19 affecting construction, and the need for bees to keep away pigeons. In the end, everything has worked out for them and they learned to adapt in a time when many of us were learning to do the same. Commonly, entrepreneurs encounter bumps in the road while designing their startup, seeking out investments, production, etc. However, it seems that the ones who are successful take what conditions they are given or where they are “planted” in stride and work to bloom with success. On a similar note, our tour guide Dr. Kelly talked about the “Irish recipe” vs. the “American recipe” for success. While we all may gather the same ingredients to make the same recipe, the way we get to the end goal or product may differ. Furthermore, I learned that this more than okay to not take the same path as others. I think in my own professional journey as well as my future one, many of the key topics of employing an entrepreneurial mindset will help me to better navigate working with co-workers, future supervisors, work culture and environment, and how I approach struggles of the working world. Seeing all the site tours up until today, I have experienced first hand how many employees come from various countries. It is important for professionals to be able to function and communicate effectively as a member of a team of individuals from diverse backgrounds. With that being said, I can only imagine that many of them had to work to adapt and be flexible with one another as they come very different backgrounds. Only then can one truly learn to bloom in success.

When I look at myself current, I feel that I have grown a lot in a short amount of time. I have stepped outside of my comfort zone in terms of globally but also in context of experiencing business. I am also happy to report that I am becoming much better at navigating around a city that once seemed so foreign to me at the beginning of the week. With now beginning to acquire a global lens of business I am able to expand my growth mindset and apply what I have learned thus far to my studies when I come back to Pitt. In terms of opportunities for growth within myself, I want to continue to work on being flexible and adaptive. Furthermore, I want to push myself to think more about the lessons that I am learning and how I want to continue to apply them to my life when we return back to Pittsburgh.

It’s hard to believe that it is already nearing the end of the first week!