Personal Mission Paper Ralya 1

Jeremy Ralya

Personal Mission Paper

Professor Farina

LAS 301

11/2X/2022
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Leadership can be simply defined as the practice of helping others to help themselves.

Which begs the question can you lead if you are helpless and incapable? I believe the answer is

no. In a post-fight interview, mixed martial arts superstar Connor McGregor famously said

“There is no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, and we are

all equal as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top

and that’s that. I am not talented. I am obsessed.” This quote has become my daily motivation.

You can be anyone if you put in the time, is my foundational belief. In this essay, we will first

reflect on my mediocre origin story. Then we will explore the goals I am actively working on

over the next year and finally, we will review the vision I have for my future. My personal

mission is to make myself as capable as possible in life and in turn be a better leader for others.

We will start this journey with a little history about me. I’m just a local kid, born and raised

here in mid-Michigan. I was a B-average student throughout grade school. I didn’t play any

sports. I wasn’t popular in school, and I was never a real “hit” with the ladies. After high school,

many of my friends went off to the big four-year universities living in the expensive housing on

campus while I attended community college and lived at home with mom and dad. I initially

studied radiology and hoped to become an x-ray technician but then took a student position at an

office job completely unrelated to my studies. My biggest passion has always been cars. My

family owns a body shop and despite having the ability to fix nearly anything, I drove beaters.

Despite these humble beginnings, I always dreamed big! Although I wasn’t a natural

athlete, I idolized individuals who were physically fit. I grew up with a poster of a Pontiac Trans

Am on my wall and I’d make the V8 engine sounds while driving around daydreaming in my

beater. Even in that student position I looked at leaders within this company and told myself “I
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could do that!”. I also sought out a cost-effective way to have my very own home. And of

course, I wanted most of these things to impress some special lady someday.

I started to push myself. I made diet and exercise a priority in my daily routine. I turned my

passion for cars into a side hustle, buying cars that had been wrecked and rebuilding them at my

family’s shop. I bought my first home at 22. It was 900 square feet, had blue carpet in the

bathroom, and needed a ton of TLC but it was all mine for just $500 a month. I began building

irreplaceable relationships at work and started my climb up the corporate ladder. On my way up I

started to realize that I had a knack for business and grew less interested in pursuing a role in

health care, as I had originally planned. And along the way, I ran into a tall blonde-haired, blue-

eyed bombshell, and for reasons that I still can’t explain she liked me.

Flash forward to today. My day starts at 6 am when I’m in the gym training every

morning before work. I don’t drive the beater anymore. I’ve built everything from custom Jeeps

to new Camaros. And I am anxiously awaiting springtime to pull out of the garage, my own

Trans Am, just like the one in the poster I had as a kid. I’ve turned that student job into a decade-

long career in leadership, with a company I am proud to be a part of. I changed out the blue

carpet myself, along with just about everything else in my little house before I flipped it. The

profits I made were turned into a nice down payment for a beautiful home and a diamond ring for

that aforementioned blue-eyed blonde bombshell. Despite these blessings and achievements in

life, I maintain the mindset that I am just getting started!

Over the next twelve months, my goals are rooted in completing my education, nurturing

my relationship with my new wife, and turning our new house into a home we can build a life in.

For most of the last decade, I was resistant and a bit resentful of higher education. Those friends

that paid the high tuition and outrageous monthly rent payments for the experience to live on
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campus were, in my eyes, financially irresponsible. Additionally, as I started to excel in my

career, I felt prideful and vindicated that I was able to work in circles around peers who held

their fancy degrees. Luckily for me, I found a pair of mentors who patiently guided this stubborn

young professional. They encouraged me to go back to school. They changed my perspective by

re-framing education as a tool. Like any other tool just because others who have access to it

don’t use it to its full potential doesn’t mean that the tool itself is useless. They helped me

recognize that I was only limiting myself by not finishing my degree. As of today, I am on target

to graduate with my bachelor's in professional communications in the spring of 2024 and I’ll

have covered the majority of the core curriculum over the next year. In many ways, I am

thankful for my 10-year hiatus from school. One of the 6 components of Adult Learning Theory

is that adults bring life experience and knowledge to the learning environment. I believe this

element is both a benefit and a challenge for the application of Malcolm Knowles's concept of

andragogy, or the art and science of helping adults learn. (as cited in Farina, 2019) My life

experience was part of what made me resistant to learning. I achieved a certain level of success

without it, so why would I need it? However, now that I am back in my studies, leveraging my

experience helps me get the most out of learning. I can immediately recognize where I can apply

the concepts that I am learning to my work. At the same time, I am inspired to seek out

opportunities to apply other concepts in my life. Completing my degree makes me capable of

progressing in my career and equips me with the perspective to inspire others, just as my mentors

did for me.

Aside from my mentors, I have had another very special individual supporting me

through my education and career development over the years. My wife Lexi and I have been

together for nearly nine years. This past summer we entered our next chapter of life together by
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getting married. Lexi and I dated for nearly six years and were engaged for two. We’ve

experienced a lot of life together, but the next twelve months will be different. We are looking

forward to growing together, traveling, and setting ourselves up for success ahead of starting a

family late next year. Having a countdown until children are part of our lives is motivating us to

be intentional about moves in our careers, education, and leisure. I am sprinting to finish my

classes. Lexi has plans to complete two more board certifications for her career in ultrasound and

we have multiple trips planned. We are desperately trying to squeeze in travel to places like

Hawaii and Italy, while it is still just the two of us. Today our goals are for ourselves. Our time is

for ourselves, and we have all the flexibility in the world to navigate life as we please. Having a

baby will be that important change that forces us to replace these usual ways of thinking with

new and different ways centered around the development and well-being of this little person.

Having a baby will be a complete paradigm shift for the two of us. (Lombrozo, 2016)

To support our growing family, my third goal is to finish remodeling the home we bought

together last summer. We have already renovated the main living space, complete with a new

fireplace, opened the layout by removing a few walls, and put in a whole new kitchen with a

walkout slider door to our back patio. However, the project list is far from complete. This winter

we will be reworking a space on the lower level into a panty and laundry combo to gain extra

storage and replacing a set of stairs with a floating staircase. We are widening our driveway in

the spring and putting on a new standing seam metal roof soon thereafter. We also have two

bathrooms to update, and we’ll be converting one of the spare bedrooms into a nursery. The to-

do list feels never ending but luckily, I am capable of doing most of the work myself. I find

home DIY to be a fun and rewarding creative outlet. Throughout our remodel, my wife and I

have leveraged one of the twelve ways to reactivate our imagination. We reactivate
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brainstorming and generate farfetched and unusual ideas. Keeping a record of our wild lighting

options or color schemes on Pinterest boards so that we can revisit and make a final choice.

When designing for a home remodel you must rearrange, reassemble, reconstruct, and recycle

multiple times before you finally land on that perfect plan. (Farina, n.d) By investing in my

relationship and my home I will be able to provide a safe and welcoming environment where I

can lead my family for years to come.

Fast forward another 5 years and my goals will have to change. These next goals are

hinged on securing a position at the director level within my organization, purchasing land and

building our dream home, and ensuring my wife and I get as much time as possible with our two

children while they are young. Today my title is a business process owner. This is a middle

management role splitting time between leading two business process managers and the staff that

reports to each of them and focusing on continuous improvement of the processes that I own.

The next level in my organization is the business process director. At this level, the director

oversees two process owners and all the staff that reports through those roles. It is also a heavier

emphasis on continuous improvement and executing vision. To get to this level I will need to

execute a series of S.M.A.R.T. goals. Setting these specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and

time-bound goals will be crucial to efficiently navigating the next 5 years. (The Essential Guide

to writing smart goals, 2019) Today I am 31 years old, and I will have been in my current role

for one year as of December 27th. The first in my series of S.M.A.R.T. goals is, to secure a lateral

role change over a different department by January 1st, 2024. By this time, I will have been in my

current department for 2 years. This will have given me enough time to develop a deep

understanding of that business and solidify my impact before branching out and getting exposure

to another area of the organization. The second S.M.A.R.T. goal is to obtain my FINRA series 26
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license by June 1st, 2025. These licenses are industry standard certifications and certain

departments require leaders to hold this level of license. I hold my series 6 today and obtaining

the series 26 expands my options for which departments I can lead at the director level. My final

S.M.A.R.T. goal is to obtain a position as business process director by my 35th birthday, May

10th, 2026. Having approximately 5 years of experience at my current level, exposure in multiple

departments and the license under my belt will set me up for success in the director role.

While I make moves to advance my career, one major step I will be taking outside of the

office is saving for and locating land to build our next home. The house we purchased a year ago

is beautiful. It has all the features we want including vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, tons

of glass, and different levels. It is our perfect for-now home with its extra bedrooms for when

the kid comes along but we will eventually need more space. Also, our house is in a

neighborhood and sits on a very small lot. My dream is to have 10 acres of woods with a large

pole barn. The land gives us privacy and room for the kids to run and play. As they grow, they

can enjoy big-kid toys like dirt bikes and quads, as I was able to while growing up. The pole barn

is for me! As I mentioned previously, I have a passion for cars and my dream is to have a shop of

my own, complete with a lift and all the tools I need to build and repair future projects like my

Trans Am. The property and barn offer financial security. If the worse were to happen and I

found myself out of work, I could leverage my skills in auto repair and pick up odds-and-end

jobs or flip cars for income. The woods are a source of heat and would likely have deer which

could be a source of food if ever there was a true emergency. Aside from being a beautiful place

to live, this property can be the perfect self-sufficient environment that guarantees I am capable

of providing for my family.

Securing the director role brings with it a healthy boost in income and having the shop

would also allow me to build cars to create additional income on the side. The combination of

these would be enough to offset my wife’s income if she moved to part-time to spend more time

with our young children. I believe that it is critically important for children to spend time with

their parents during their developing years. While I fully expect that I will have long working

hours, creating this space for my wife will benefit my young family. Between advancing my

career, building a secure environment, and creating space for my wife to spend time with our

children it is clear that my 5-year goals have shifted from personal wins to a family focus.

It is interesting to imagine what life will look like 10 years from now. I will have already

had the big 4.0. birthday. I’ll have celebrated my 20-year anniversary with my company. My

wife and I will have lived in our new home on my 10 acres for a little over 5 years and I’m sure

we’ll likely be imagining small updates we’d like to make. Both our children will be in school,

so we’ll likely have sports practice or music lessons to travel to and from. In 10 years, my goals

will expand to increasing my influence at work by securing a role as a department head.

Additionally, I would like to be an influence in my community, potentially serving as a member

of the school board or deacon in the church. While directors focus on continual improvement of

their processes, the department head level is responsible for understanding the overall vision for

the organization and steering your department to support the direction of the company. Very

similarly, a community leader must be in tune with changes in their city, town, or church body,

and work to find solutions that benefit community members. Once you’ve reached this level of

influence, you are bound to work with people from all walks of life. My goal is to practice

pluralism and demonstrate respect for diverse ethical principles, religious beliefs, and political

preferences. (salbahisnapicoy, 2021) Whether at your place of work or out in the community,
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finding common ground with people with different perspectives is imperative. Common ground

can only expand your options for solutions and improvement. At the same time, being able to

effectively navigate differences of opinion will avoid gridlock and keep progress moving. By

holding these leadership roles, I will be capable of guiding the company that has been so good to

me, through the next generation of challenges. Additionally, involvement in the community

allows me to shape and influence the little corner of the world that my family and friends get to

live in and grow in.

You can be anyone if you put in the time. Connor McGregor’s words are my daily

encouragement and I wholeheartedly believe this to be true. Over the next 10 years, I will remain

obsessed with becoming capable in my own career, capable of providing for my family, and

capable of influencing change in both my organization and community. One key ingredient to

successfully achieving these goals is completing my liberal education and securing my degree in

professional communications. In a commencement speech delivered by Dr. Fareed Zakaria, he

emphasized the true value of a liberal education is being able to put your thoughts into words and

learning how to learn. (Zakaria, 2015) Leadership is helping others to help themselves. My goal

is to be capable in every sense of the word. I can be an example, but I cannot simply do things on

others’ behalf. That is not leadership. I must be capable of marshaling my thoughts into

compelling arguments. I must be capable of articulating the benefits of wise personal choices,

discipline, and hard work to the people I am leading. I need to emphasize the value of

continually seeking knowledge for its own sake, to force personal growth. This is my mission. I

will be capable because I am a leader.

Farina, A. (2019) Adult Learning Theory [YouTube] Retrieved from Siena Heights University

LAS301: The Adult Learner

Farina, Anthony. (n.d.) A Dozen Ways to reactivate and relase your imagination [pdfl] Retrieved

from Siena Heights LAS 301 The Adult Leaner. Canvas.

Lombrozo, T. (2016, July 18). What is a paradigm shift, anyway? NPR. Retrieved November 14,

2022, from https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/07/18/486487713/what-is-a-

paradigm-shift-anyway

salbahisnapicoy. (2021, January 13). What is pluralism? (pluralism in ethics, pluralism in

religion, pluralism in politics). YouTube. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cazssbSLqVQ

The Essential Guide to writing smart goals. Smartsheet. (2019, January 9). Retrieved December

11, 2022, from https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/essential-guide-writing-smart-goals

wags342. (2015, September 9). Fareed Zakaria - The Importance of the liberal arts. YouTube.

Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Kbfu_XOi0