Impact Statement (How I Change Cambodia)
I’m here to talk about my impact, something that I keep improving myself each year. People are born different. Some are born to challenge themselves with something that they are afraid of. While some are just born to love doing something that they already know how to do and never really want to get out of their comfort zone. For me, I can be both. I am one of those students who does not really like studying about entrepreneurship because I never got a chance to know what entrepreneurship is or study about the economy at the government school when I was young. Therefore, it is hard to build the endearment and the effort toward this subject.
To me, the impact is something that you do to develop yourself and the world that you live in. This year, I have come to understand that impact is not always about success. Sometimes, the impact can be about getting out of your comfort zone. Even if you are trying to do something that you are afraid of, I strongly believe that it also creates an impact.
This academic year was really challenging because we have to learn remotely due to the Covid pandemic which led me to create a better reflection about myself of who I really am and what I need to improve in order to create a better version of myself. I have come to know myself better that there are actually two sides of me that live in the same body when it comes to making a decision or doing something. It is like a devil and angel staying on my shoulder. One is trying to encourage me to get out of my comfort zone by doing something that I am afraid of, while the other one is trying to discourage me because I am not good at that, so do not do it. But I always choose to do it so I could step out of my comfort zone, overcome adversity and prove to the other side of me that I can do it. I can step out of my comfort zone and that’s how winning is done.
This year was a special and amazing year. It is the year that most of us had been waiting for, which is the Business Model Competition to be introduced to us. In September of 2020, Keith Simpson introduced the BMC competition to Liger students a couple of weeks after we returned to school. I was really excited about it and I assume everybody else felt the same as me. But at the same time, I felt like I did not want to join this competition this year yet. I was not ready and scared about it for some reason. I really wanted to do it and to get experience from it. I want to step out of my comfort zone and do something that I am afraid of. Simultaneously, my other side of me tried to discourage me and showed the fact that I don’t like entrepreneurship. Then I was like “you know what? I’m gonna shoot my shot. I’m going to join this competition.” I tried so hard to push myself to join because I thought that if I am not ready this year, I will not be ready in the next year too so I must join to get experience. It was really difficult at first because I did not have a team or even an idea yet. But having a great facilitator like Keith, everything would be fine. Soon after, I got into a team with 2 of my classmates which were Vuochnea and Lyhour. This made me feel better because I thought that I was going to do it alone.
BMC was almost like a job that we were doing while studying. This reflects on me to understand how hard life is during this pandemic. How people are doing their job in this hard time. We were really struggling in doing and developing our business ideas and plans. It was a pandemic so we could not get out of the building and do our business survey. The only way was to do it through phone or video call. But for me, it was not as easy as it sounded. It was really difficult as I don’t really like doing all of that stuff. But I gotta do it. I need to improve myself.
In addition to that event, I have come to learn how hard it is in order to get successful as an entrepreneur. We came to a point where we were stuck in thinking of a way to develop our idea. Our idea was not true as we validated so we have to pivot it into a new idea. It was hard but we did not give it up there. We tried our best and shared our thoughts and ideas until we had a new idea but still solved our initial problem. This also taught me not to give up because sometimes, when you give up too early while you have not put 100% effort into it yet, you are just going to regret it forever.
By joining this competition, it helped me to reflect on myself on why I need to step out of my comfort zone more and how hard it is for me to make decisions because whenever I make any decisions, there are always two sides of me. One trying to encourage me to join this competition while the other, just trying to discourage me not to do it. But I will always choose to do it because I want to prove to the other side that I can do it even if I do not like it or do not know how to do it. This is really important by trying to prove the other side wrong because it is something that keeps motivating me to do it even more. This is why I have come to know that getting out of my comfort zone can also give an impact on me which leads me to create a better reflection of myself of what I like to do. Sometimes, the thing that you don’t like to do can become something that you love to do. Something that you thought you don’t like, can become your passion. You would never know until you figure it out by yourself.
After discovering this truth about myself by making the decision to join this competition, I understand myself better. In the future, it will happen again just like the decision that I was making. I know that it is going to be two sides of me, one trying to encourage me while the other one trying to discourage me. But I’m never going to listen to the one that discourages me. I want to show it and prove that I can do it. It is really important to prove the other side wrong because we are worthy and born powerful and unique therefore, we have to prove to them that we are good for it. In order to do that, we will have to step out of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves more with what we are afraid of.
I hope this will convey a message to you that no matter what other people say about you or look down on you, you must have to believe in yourself. That is how winning is done. Only you know your limit and no one else knows it. Try to step out of your comfort zone to gain more experience, maybe those things that you are afraid to do can be something that you like. You just have to try. Try harder and if people look down on you, you gotta show them how great you are. (“I Will Show You How Great I Am!” – Muhammad Ali)
Life isn’t easy, and you have to fight for it, but if you don’t, you’ll be stuck there forever. You must find a way to escape. If your previous attempt fails, you must try again and again until you reach the peak of the mountain, because that is how you win. You’re not going to give up simply because your first try failed. It is not how many times you fail that matters, but how you keep going and find a way to succeed.
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” ― Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa
