July 16th
Lessons from a 10-year-old who faces her professional growth head on.
Professional development and self-improvement books sell millions of copies yearly, however for those of us that learn best from a lead-by-example approach to self-help, a lot can be learned from ten-year-old Chloe Rawlinson. The core lesson of most self-help books is that in order to achieve success, one must envision exactly what they want and chart a plan on how to achieve that vision. Most importantly, once a success plan is developed, action must be taken immediately. The self-help principle described is naturally displayed Chloe, a young lady who has entered Drone Forward’s Youth Consulting Program to work on overcoming some weaknesses that she doesn’t want to get in the way of her success.
Like a lot of American stories about success, Chloe’s starts with a recap of the failure that forced her to realize she needed to work on some shortcomings.
For Chloe, the failure that inspired her mission to improve was her student council loss this past school year. The big day for candidates at Chloe’s school was when they put their posters up in the main hall to declare that they were running for student council. As it turned out, the beautiful campaign poster Chloe had prepared was created late the night before. To make things worse, by the time Chloe got to school the next day, she realized she was so tired that she’d forgotten the poster. As a result, very few children walking that hall knew of Chloe’s candidacy and thus, she was unable to secure the votes needed to win her seat on the student council.
Moving forward, Chloe took advantage of an opportunity presented by Drone Forward this summer to work with a team on a high-pressure project with multiple deadlines. At the end of the two weeks Chloe’s team will be expected to present their analysis of disinfectant products that schools will choose from when deciding how to keep their students safe in the fall. More importantly, these young consultants will advise Light Line on whether or not there is a need for an autonomous COVID-19 disinfecting robot. In all, there are five checkpoints to the project, ending in one big presentation, and Chloe has already started to practice the skills necessary not to miss anything.
Currently, Chloe has already started to stand out among her older team members in the Drone Forward Youth Consulting Program for her ability to complete all assignments and maintain adherence to the team schedule. When Chloe started the program, she was asked how she would keep up with the demands of the project and she answered, “I will keep a notebook so I know where all my information is.” However, Chloe has been the only one of five teammates that has gone beyond a notebook and started using G Suite tools such as a calendar to keep track of where she needs to be and what she needs to have completed.
Chloe also embodies the “early-bird-gets-the-worm” philosophy by coming to class early; her teacher often smiles as he opens up his Zoom screen to teach the session and Chloe is already there, sitting at full attention. What Chloe’s hard work and determination will lead to beyond the Youth Consulting Program is another fundamental principle of self-help books: the Law of Attraction. Even Chloe’s teacher for the Youth Consulting Program has noted that he wants to work harder at getting Chloe and her team ready because Chloe inspires him.
Chloe’s ability to inspire others to bring their best daily is a skill that cannot be taught and children like Chloe, who embrace opportunity, shun entitlement, and simply take action, will guide us through the troubled times we are currently facing. Drone Forward looks forward to working with more children like Chloe in future Youth Consulting Programs so that we can begin to prepare the road for all individuals with the talent and drive to lead our future drone, robotics, and technology corporations and businesses to better outcomes.
Drone Forward is dedicated to making the Youth Consulting Project accessible to all students, so please reach out to us if you know of any children who could benefit from the YCP experience. Drone Forward also welcomes qualified individuals to apply to become mentors to our consultant teams. In connection, the program is always looking for drone/robotics/technology companies that are interested in being the focal point of one of our projects. All interested parties should go to droneforwardinc.com and simply submit the contact information and someone from Drone Forward will get back to you.