I can’t even put into words how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to spend Spring Break in Seattle with the PLA. From breakfasts with Helen and Ed to my childlike excitement about retail innovation at Avanade to uncontrollably laughing with my classmates who have become wonderful friends, I had a ball.

It wasn’t until I sat back down to do computer science homework that I wondered if it was all real. I simply can’t believe what we did, what we saw and who we heard from.

Also, I’m one of the biggest food connoisseurs you’ll ever meet. So, the per diem helped me eat my life away in mac n’ cheese, lava cakes, yogurt, etc. It was amazing. When we began the trip with a food tour, I knew it would be a fantastic trip.

To me, the slight cultural differences were amazing. The first of these shocks was during our food tour. People who worked at many of the produce stands were happily giving out taste tests of the fruit on the edge of the their stands. They were yelling at us to try it! It was so nice. In general, I didn’t have a poor interaction with any of the service people that I met. The second slight difference came in the quality of food. I felt that it was absolutely fantastic! From lava cakes to yogurt, everything was naturally made and homemade! The best Starbucks cup of coffee that I’ve ever had came from store #1 in the Pike Place Market. It was fantastic. There was a true abundance of specialization in the market and I truly enjoyed it! The next shock came from the interaction with technological business people. They all seemed to live by a motto of “there’s nothing to loose” and “why not.” In comparison to the rest of the political spectrum, I liked when we heard from their Deputy Mayor that Washington and Seattle in general do things a bit differently by putting everything on the ballot. I like that everyone’s perspective is considered and their “Seattle process” of everything taking a while is good to keep checks and balances and be most successful/effective. One interesting piece of that was their new measures of success by the number of people served. That is truly what is most important.

Nick Freda deserves an entire paragraph of summary because his words of wisdom were fantastic. He truly spoke to where I am and where I hope to be. “Never be afraid to chase something.” People in the field often have a burnout point and ¼ life crisis and I hope to avoid it or simply embrace it. If we have a resource (time, money, effort/passion) share it with others. He mentioned that we should understand or learn to understand “what we want to get out of our work.” I really appreciated that. He broke picking an employer down into culture (relationships and interactions), priorities (time, flexibility), and what we want to get out of it. He told us how being a leader can be learning from different perspectives and sharing the message with others. I feel like that is exactly what the PLA is all about. I learned from him that the only thing stopping me is me! That was great to take to heart.

Another important takeaway was from the gentleman from WTIA. He said “if you ever want to run a company, you need to be able to sell something.” I also truly enjoyed learning about the leadership principles important to Amazon and the stories of the gentlemen at Karat. The entire experience was unbelievable and I wouldn’t want to spend my break with any other groups of people.

The brilliant minds of Seattle are willing to fail. We should be as well.