“The more and more I networked, the closer I felt that certain dreams and opportunities were getting really close to being accomplished.”
Throughout my life, I have always been a very passionate and ambitious person. I have always been good at identifying what it is that I want out of life and figuring out how to achieve it. But until MSBA, I was only used to networking and making connections with people I knew in my hometown of Detroit, MI. Coming to New York City for the first time, I honestly did not know what to feel. I was excited, of course, but knowing no one and nothing about the city made me feel pretty uncomfortable. However, realizing that I am in New York City, the land of opportunities, I decided to put my fears behind me and attack this opportunity.
Everyone knows that along with sports management/business, I am also highly involved in fashion. Being successful in the fashion industry has been a dream of mine for a long time. I decided to not only chase one dream (MSBA) but to attack two dreams at the same time. My internship at Game Seven Marketing did not start until the third week of the program. So the first two weeks, I spent time going all around NYC, making connections, meeting people and becoming a familiar face around known fashion spots in the city. Once my internship started, I continued to be a familiar face around different places in the city. I was “sports marketing intern” by day with Game Seven, and “fashion networker” by night, on top of trying to go to as many speaker sessions as I could in MSBA. I was literally grinding non-stop pretty much every day, trying to make the most out of an opportunity. The more and more I networked, the closer I felt that certain dreams and opportunities were getting really close to being accomplished.
My hard work started to pay off. I was gaining work good experience from my internship and was meeting well-connected people and attending some pretty cool fashion/lifestyle events. As a result of trying to do 10 things at once, sometimes at speakers or field trips, unfortunately, I would doze off due to not really resting much. Often times I could literally feel the rolling eyes and people staring at me, assuming that I was slacking or not taking my opportunities seriously enough, when, in fact, it was the exact opposite. I take full responsibility for my actions and agree that I did fall asleep at some inopportune times. I was trying to do too much and take advantage of literally every opportunity. Oftentimes that meant crashing at bad times. However, that taught me two very important lessons: one, to better prioritize my time and to better organize my day to day schedule, because as much as I would love to do everything, I just can’t; and two, people will always assume they know what is going on with you when they don’t, but that is not important. What is important is you knowing who you are and what your purpose is by staying true to yourself.
Throughout my time in New York I was constantly mixing the two worlds of fashion and sports, viewing them as separate worlds. But it was not until today’s speaker that I really realized just how easily how the two worlds can be combined. Mike Kelly of PVH spoke to us tonight about how he plans to mix in sports with his different clothing brands. He also spoke of how the power of sports unites people of all backgrounds and how to translate that into sales for his company. Mike’s main advice to the group was to work for a company where you can be true to yourself. That statement really connected with me. It was what I had been trying to do this entire trip. Meet, network and connect with people for jobs/opportunities while still staying true to who I am as a person. His speech was very insightful. Mike was a very cool guy, and he told me that I made an amazing first impression, which was yet another sign that great things are on the horizon for me. I would love to work with/for PVH one day, so you never know what might happen. All in all, I am not sure which field I will be working — the sports industry, fashion industry or a combination of both. But, whatever field I do end up working in, I feel that my opportunity is very close. I can feel it.