Postgrad Life: The Great Race

Postgrad Life: The Great Race

Two Sunday’s ago, I crossed a major milestone in my life by graduating from the University of New Hampshire. As a first-generation college student, my family has been anticipating this achievement for a long time, so thank you to all who have helped along the way. I graduated alongside nearly 600 other students in the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Econ., so I figured I’d write about the experience of transitioning from student life to “real” life. This transition can come loaded with sadness to leave behind amazing memories and anxiety regarding the future for many. Although I am still adjusting, I have some reflections to share and I’m fortunate to have an older brother, friends, and mentors that have advised me.

IMPORTANT: Before I begin I’d like to acknowledge the achievement of graduating anyone in the class of 2022. If you’re from an upbringing like mine, higher education is perceived as the standard, not an exceptional accomplishment. When your entire social network is graduating and competing to exceed expectations, it’s easy for a bachelor’s degree to go overlooked, but make no mistake, you should be proud of this extraordinary achievement. There are many people from all corners of the world who would sacrifice anything for the opportunity to attend University, so take pride in seizing that opportunity.

?

The Great Race

It’s easy to give vague, generic advice to recent graduates, but maybe an analogy will resonate more strongly. Lately, I’ve thought about postgrad life as a car race, which totally has nothing to do with my recent obsession with Netlfix’s Formula 1 Docuseries. In today’s hustle culture, we feel pressure not only to succeed, but to succeed as quickly as possible. It’s not good enough just to exceed our own expectations, we have to beat out our peers as well. Many people have taken a note from Ricky Bobby, believing that if you’re not first, you’re last. If this mindset helps motivate you and you can sleep soundly at night, cheers. However, if you’re like me, this mindset can become exhausting and fulfillment becomes impossible to achieve. My goal is to provide you with a perspective that gives you peace of mind. Without good mental health, professional success means nothing.

?As someone who knew absolutely nothing about Formula 1 racing a few months ago, I promise to make this analogy digestible.

?

How Do We Measure Success?

The standard of high success in F1 is placing on podium. This means to finish in the top 3. These racers get to hold up trophies and spray champagne at each other. But what of the other 17 racers on track? Well, everyone that placed up to 10th scores points in a scaled manner. The other 10 racers go home empty handed. So far, it’s simple right? 11-20 is bad, 4-10 is good, 2 & 3 is great, and 1 is best. Except its not that simple and neither is evaluating your own success in the postgrad world.

Here’s an example of where things get tricky:

In the 2021 season, the Belgium Gran Prix was delayed due to rain. Rain makes for interesting races because it tends to level the playing field. Just as some people are born with career advantages such as generational wealth or demographic privilege, some drivers are more fortunate to be with top teams that have bigger budgets, bigger teams, and better cars. Since rain is difficult to drive in, it’s commonly believed that the quality of car matters less in these races than the skill of the driver. That was great news for George Russel, a prodigy, driving for Williams Racing (considered to be a bottom tier team). George drove a tremendous race and placed P2. Williams would normally be thrilled just to score points, but a podium was a dream come true. This performance contributed to Russel being picked up the next season by Mercedes, the defending champs of the constructor’s championship.

(Constructor’s championship refers to the total points scored by a team, each team having two drivers)

Now let’s look at a different scenario. Max Verstappen is a driver for Red Bull Racing. Red Bull is a top tier team and Max is the defending champ of the Driver’s Championship. He’s also leading the standings in the 2022 season. Until this past weekend, Max had crashed in two races, granting him zero points. But in every race that he did finish, he finished P1. That’s a staggering statistic and speaks to Max’s skill and the expectations of the team. However, this past weekend in Monaco, Max finished P3. No problem, right? Aren’t podiums great? Well, yes, normally. But not everyone was pleased with the result.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull’s other driver, won the race. This was a huge moment for Perez as Red Bull normally strategizes for him to help Max Verstappen win. Max’s father was unpleased, claiming “The championship leader, Max, was not helped in that sense by the chosen strategy. It turned completely to Checo’s (Perez) favor. That was disappointing to me, and I would have liked it to be different for the championship leader.” It is important to Max and his supporters to maximize points whenever possible, especially considering last season came down to the final race as both lead drivers were tied. Although Max placed on podium, some in his camp felt that the achievement was not enough.

?

So why did I just run you through an overview of Formula 1 culture? Well if it’s not obvious I’ll state it in bold:

There is no single way to measure success. Success is defined differently by each individual.

It is important for each of us to form our own definition of success and to assess our performance accordingly. There’s nothing wrong with being a Max Verstappen and only tolerating the very best, as long as that works for you. But there’s also nothing wrong with being George Russel at Williams, basking in the glory of his result because he performed better than his normal capability.

The mindset I’ve formed is that comparing yourself to peers can serve as a useful benchmark, but placing too much value on comparison is detrimental. There will always be someone ahead of you no matter what you’re comparing. That’s why I see comparison as a loser’s game. That mindset prepares you fail. The most healthy and effective mindset that I’ve formed is comparing my current self to my old self. You read twice as many books this year as last year? Success. You can benchpress 10 more pounds than you could last month? Success. You’re doing well in a job role that seemed intimidating last year? SUCCESS. Of course, you should never settle for minimal progress. Always do your best and work hard. But if you’re burning yourself in the process, then what’s the point?

?

If you’re a recent college graduate experiencing anxiety, confusion, or hopelessness, I hope this piece has helped in some way. You should always want the best for yourself, not only because you can but because you deserve it. But you also deserve to be happy. You deserve to sit out on your porch, with a coffee mug in hand, listening to bird’s chirping, without feeling guilty for “wasting” time not being productive. Aim high and climb steady. Thanks for reading.