My best learning from LinkedIn CEO

Yesterday (Feb 18, 2015) was my last day at LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been the most career transformational place in my professional life. It was an amazing 5 year journey for me. I started as a Data Scientist and ended up building the LinkedIn Business Analytics team from 1 person to almost 80 team members and helped our business significantly across all of the monetization business lines. I am so proud of being part of the team which makes significant impacts. There were so many great people who helped and supported me, and I had a lot of insightful learning from this great company and my colleagues. As a result, I thought it might be interesting to share a few of my most important learning.

Let’s start from a brown-bag session with Jeff Weiner in 2014. Jeff joined one of my Biz Analytics staff meetings and he spent 1.5 hours with 50 team members and shared a lot of his wisdom. For me, the most imperative learning was from the last question he answered. One of our best business analysts asked him, “Jeff, why you always have so much energy?” Jeff’s answer was crystal clear and insightful, “Well, first, have enough sleep. Second, eat healthy food. Third, have a happy family which supporting you, Fourth, work out on a regular base. By the way, I have a fitness coach trains me on a regular base……” “…..having a fitness coach and working out…..” that’s the most important point I learned from Jeff in that meeting. :-) I wanted to be energetic. So I joined a fitness club and found a great coach right away and started my workout training.

Instantly, the true learning started….

A sore body today is a strong body tomorrow!

Working out is hard. Because I did not workout much at all for a long time, I felt extremely tired and sore after each training session. For instance, after my first training, I almost felt asleep in the car when I was driving. However, day after day, week after week, I felt better and better. The workout training was still tough to me, but I felt less arm/leg sore than before even I worked out for longer time week after week. So when we insist and keep working towards the goal, the pain and sore will become muscles and strength.

Small improvements on a regular base will make big differences.

My coach gave me a little bit more weight here and there during my training, finally, I can work out longer and lift more weights than when I just started. I am a data analyst, and would like to use numbers to demonstrate the difference. Let’s say, if we do 1% more everyday, after a year, the difference is HUGE. Guess what, (101%) 365 = 37,783%

The gravity is the fundamental force making us stronger and better.

Working out is an anti-gravity game. "Anti-gravity" is not just the concept in science fiction or the “force” lectured by master Yoda in Star Wars movies. It is real. (BTW, Newton’s model has been replaced by general relativity where gravity is not a force but the result of the geometry of spacetime.) I noticed that to become physically healthy and strong, we need to leverage gravity in a very natural way. Either through lifting weight, pushing up, or running on the treadmill or outside. Whatever we do, we always need to anti-gravity. Gravity slows us down, but also makes us stronger, faster and more energetic.

Friction is a part of the greatness of nature.

If you did sled drags or car push (yes, car push.:-)) before, you would know that friction between the equipments and the ground surface is just huge. :-) It reminds me that in our life, when we want to do something new, there is always people telling us “no” or “impossible". It is just very natural. We shouldn’t be bothered much by it. Receiving “no”s is like having frictions between slides and ground. Part of the life/nature. Let’s keep moving forward.

Tough feeling vs. comfortable feeling, we need to get out of our comfortable zone.

I used to run cross some small hills close to my previous house. I found out that when I climbed hills, it was always tough. However, when I run downhills, I felt very comfortable and cozy. It reminded me that when life becomes too comfortable, it might be the time for reconsidering whether it is good for long term or not. To highlight this point, when I was working in the hospital as a neural surgeon during the early stage of my career, one of the founding doctors for Tianjin Cancer Hospital told me that, “To become a good medical doctor, you should always keep a very firm stool, but not a cozy sofa at home. Why keep a stool like that? Very simple, it keeps you alert and awake when you study.” So my conclusion is that living within our comfortable zone might cause very uncomfortable situations in the future.

Our brain always “tells" us you CANNOT.

When I just started with my fitness coach, I gave up several times. In my mind, full of comments such as “I cannot do it anymore.”, “I am too tired, let’s skip tomorrow’s training”.“I would die if I did one more set.” “This is just too heavy.” “ It is impossible for me to finish one more pushup.” blah, blah, blah. You know what, all of these random brain signals are “true lies”. We can do it. We can finish one more set of pushups. we can get up a little early and be there on time. We won’t die if we do 20 more crunches. Our physical body can do way more than our physical brain can “think”. The key is to listen to your heart and not the brain.

Having a great coach can help us make huge difference.

I reserve the best part as the last piece of my post. A great coach molds you into the players she sees inside of you and watches your talent and dedication grow into a skill that you both can be proud of. Her payoff is the smile she sees on your face after you have reached your goal. Her drive are the tears you cry because you want it so bad, knowing that she had the same feeling inside her too. —Author Unknown

Next Play:

My next play is to build a start-up and our vision is to help people use data analytics to solve business problems and make decisions in an efficient way at massive scale.

I am deeply grateful for many inspiring LinkedIn colleagues, such as Jeff and team, who support me with all of the opportunities and it is a great honor of serving such a wonderful company for 5 years. I’d also like to deeply thank my fitness coach, Derek Emma, and executive coach, Stacy McCarthy for their kind mentorship and inspirational guidance.

THANK YOU, Everyone!