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How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Create a Bold Vision for Your Life · Speak In Flow

• 0:05
  Melinda Lee: Welcome. Dear listeners, to the speak and flow podcast where we dive into unique experiences to help you and your team achieve maximum potential and flow. I am so excited for our guest today. He's got so much wisdom to share. He's the director of business innovation at Uc Berkeley, and an academic entrepreneur. Osan I Goran
• 0:32
  Melinda Lee: hi Osan.
• 0:33
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I'm Melinda. Thank you.
• 0:35
  Melinda Lee: I'm so glad you're here. We're going to have some juicy fun topic all around vision and why it's so important for us to have a big vision. But before we get into that, can you share with the audience more about some of your passionate projects right now, or what you love about what you're doing.
• 0:53
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Thank you. Actually. I'll I'll like to call myself as an academic entrepreneur because I I'm in the academic setting. But I feel like an entrepreneur, I mean since I since my childhood, and my passion is actually
• 1:10
  Oguzhan Aygoren: to 1st of all to become an entrepreneur, and to make other people an entrepreneur, and having a bold vision, is actually part of a big part of becoming an an entrepreneur. So that's what I would like to bring in other people and other companies as well, bringing out the vision.
• 1:32
  Oguzhan Aygoren: the inspiration, and also the connection with other things.
• 1:37
  Melinda Lee: That's so powerful. I think that's so important because a lot of times people are bored. They're they're just overworked. And so I love, bringing the vision, the inspiration, and the connection into our work, and starting with the vision. Can you tell the audience what does that mean for you? And what is a vision?
• 1:58
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yeah, sure, I mean, a vision is different than a goal. We mostly talk about our goals. And also when we talk about our visions. Sometimes it is mixed with goals as well. I mean how I defined goals and vision is like goals are mostly short term. They are tangible.
• 2:18
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and it can be plans. So what I mean is, you know how to achieve that goal. So it's already written. I mean, you just execute you just follow the plan. If you follow the plan, you can achieve the goal.
• 2:30
  Oguzhan Aygoren: However, the vision is
• 2:33
  Oguzhan Aygoren: hairy.
• 2:35
  Oguzhan Aygoren: but at the same time it is exciting.
• 2:38
  Oguzhan Aygoren: That's why it's juicy, as you say. I mean, it needs to excite you, but at the same time it scares you. Why, it scares you because you don't know how to achieve it.
• 2:51
  Oguzhan Aygoren: That's the scary part. You don't know how to achieve it. That's the, I think. Number one thing which separates vision from the goal for the goals. You know how to achieve it. You can achieve it with practice you can achieve it with excellence, but with vision
• 3:06
  Oguzhan Aygoren: you can. I mean, you don't know what to do. You have. How can you practice it? You need to explore it. It requires exploration. It requires going into the unknown.
• 3:17
  Oguzhan Aygoren: For example, you could have a big goal like climbing Mount Everest. It's a big goal, but everyone can do it. But you can achieve it, or you can be a. You can get a gold medal in the Olympics. It's a hard goal, but you can achieve it by practicing. But with the vision
• 3:34
  Oguzhan Aygoren: you can say I'm like elements. I'd like to go to Mars. Nobody has ever gone to Mars, I mean, nobody has done it before, so you don't know how to do it. How can you practice? You need to start from somewhere. A goal is just a beginning point of that vision. A vision is a collection of goals. But you just don't know yet
• 3:55
  Oguzhan Aygoren: which goals you need to accomplish in order to turn that vision into something you need to explore it. You need to discover it. So that's the most exciting thing to me, and it's the most challenging thing, because I mean in your life, if you are always full of goals. If you are always full of plans, if you are, if you have a full agenda, you are fully booked every day.
• 4:19
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Actually you have already lived your life. I mean you just executed, I mean.
• 4:23
  Oguzhan Aygoren: it's just where is the fun? Part of it?
• 4:26
  Oguzhan Aygoren: And most.
• 4:27
  Melinda Lee: I guess, like most people just do that like. No, no, I mean, I don't know that many people that have a big vision like Elon Musk or big vision like Ford, right to to bring to something big and different into the world. And what is the reason like what happens when we don't have this big vision.
• 4:49
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yeah. But when we don't have this big vision, it's like, actually, we just
• 4:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: live
• 4:55
  Oguzhan Aygoren: to work. It's like, Okay, I just work. I make money. I pay my bills. I pay my check. It's like it's it's like it feels like you cannot control the outside world. It's just you are just trying to make a living. I mean, it's just feels like you feel some emptiness. I think that's 1 of the problems that we live right now in the world. People just do something because there is a carrier path given in front of us.
• 5:24
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and that's how I felt when I started my work and before Academia. My 1st job was at the corporate Png, and at 1st I was really unhappy when I started the job. Because I mean, they told me. Okay, this is the carrier path you need to follow. But I said, I don't want to follow that path. I mean, I was just scared. Today. I started Job I oh, my God! I don't want to be one of those people in 20 years to in 30 years time I would like to create my own path.
• 5:49
  Oguzhan Aygoren: It requires that you need to follow the unknown.
• 5:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: You need to be willing to explore the unknown paths and willing to create your path. I actually, I think it's more like
• 6:04
  Oguzhan Aygoren: leaving a way of
• 6:06
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and living the life of an artist. An artist actually.
• 6:11
  Oguzhan Aygoren: artists don't have plans. Artists just creates beautiful drawings, beautiful music, beautiful art, coming from their heart, just driven by their feelings, intuition.
• 6:26
  Oguzhan Aygoren: or just their excitement, passion. So I think we need to bring that creative side of that into our own lives. What many people but most of us lack is this creativity part of it because
• 6:45
  Oguzhan Aygoren: we are scared of it. I mean the old education system. All the world
• 6:49
  Oguzhan Aygoren: is telling us that. Okay, you need to
• 6:53
  Oguzhan Aygoren: find a stable job, you know, to get a stable income, you know, to to pay the bills. Okay, this is what I need to. It's all logical. But
• 7:04
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I mean, it's not
• 7:06
  Oguzhan Aygoren: living life as a a real human being. I mean, it's just like living within the limits living, living within the range that is given given to you.
• 7:19
  Oguzhan Aygoren: But in order to go beyond that, you need to have a life vision for yourself as an individual.
• 7:27
  Melinda Lee: Okay. Well.
• 7:27
  Oguzhan Aygoren: As a company. You have to have a vision for yourself. So what else can I can I achieve what would be the most fun thing. What would be the most exciting thing that I can do, and that's what great entrepreneurs do. I think there is a lot we can learn from those entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs combine this passion of the artist, the creative side of the artist with the execution side of the business.
• 7:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and they bring us this great inventions of our time like check, gpt like Tesla, like Uber, like Airbnb. These are all crazy ideas which was once visions in the brains of the entrepreneurs, but now, being experienced by every one of us.
• 8:15
  Melinda Lee: Right. And so you're suggesting that even if you're in a corporate environment with a clear career path
• 8:22
  Melinda Lee: to to still bring in the creativity by having a big vision for yourself. Bring it in, anyway. It's just because you have a direct career path. If you do not, I mean just having a big vision. What could that do for someone? Well, first, st how can they go about doing that? And what could that do if they did do that?
• 8:42
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yes, definitely, yeah, definitely. It's like
• 8:46
  Oguzhan Aygoren: In that case, I think
• 8:48
  Oguzhan Aygoren: an employee, a student, or
• 8:53
  Oguzhan Aygoren: anyone.
• 8:55
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Anyone can become an entrepreneur. So you don't have to start your own company to become an entrepreneur. Anyone can become an entrepreneur just by thinking more entrepreneurial, just by embracing this mindset, and it starts with having a vision for yourself.
• 9:14
  Oguzhan Aygoren: being courageous, taking the steps towards it by embracing the unknown and the answer on the uncertainty of it.
• 9:24
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and just by listening to your feelings. And let me tell you my let me tell you my story. When I 1st started. I mean, I just said I started my corporate job, and I was unhappy. And let me tell you how I broke out of it
• 9:39
  Oguzhan Aygoren: once
• 9:41
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Actually, once there was a a meeting. And in that meeting I did. They ask, okay, I mean, anyone can present voluntarily anything you want. And I volunteered for the presentation. And so they said, Okay, what are you going to present? I said, I'd like to present something about innovation.
• 10:01
  Oguzhan Aygoren: And at that time Png was the 7th most innovative company in the world. And it was on the cover of business week. And the 1st slide on my presentation was that, okay? Everyone was like, Okay, bragging about it. Okay, we are the 7th most Innovative Company. But then
• 10:17
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I had a very provocating presentation by saying, I don't feel like that.
• 10:22
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I don't feel like I'm working for the 7th most innovative company in the world. I feel like there's a certain path. It's like people are telling me what to do, and I don't want to do that.
• 10:33
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and by I provocate I provocatively
• 10:37
  Oguzhan Aygoren: presented my ideas.
• 10:40
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Why, I feel like that, and at the end of the presentation
• 10:45
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I was just
• 10:46
  Oguzhan Aygoren: willing to accept what is willing to accept the worst thing that could happen. And the worst thing I was thinking of was like, Okay, they could fire me just because of my presentation at the end of the day. But what happened after the presentation was like.
• 11:04
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Hey, Osan, I mean, why don't you work on this stuff.
• 11:07
  Oguzhan Aygoren: So I was a junior. It was my 1st hearing job right out of college, and
• 11:13
  Oguzhan Aygoren: after that I started working with the general manager, and later I learned that
• 11:19
  Oguzhan Aygoren: general manager was looking for something to work on innovation. But he had nobody to work on that. And later I realized I was telling the right thing at the right time to the right audience, but I do not know that I just took the leap
• 11:38
  Oguzhan Aygoren: by not knowing.
• 11:39
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 11:40
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I felt like I had to tell this. I had to present my feelings about it.
• 11:46
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and I was ready
• 11:48
  Oguzhan Aygoren: to face with any consequence, the worst being
• 11:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: losing my job, I'm I was willing to lose my job by telling the truth that I felt inside myself.
• 12:01
  Melinda Lee: I so, but.
• 12:03
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Willing to take this step?
• 12:04
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Why willing to voice your feelings and opinions about what makes you uncomfortable about your job?
• 12:11
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Okay, I think this is one of the 1st steps that you can do at your job. If you are uncomfortable, you can just say, instead of complaining, you can just tell what what works well and what doesn't work well and how it can be improved. And also you can ask questions like, what would the ideal case look like
• 12:31
  Oguzhan Aygoren: in the ideal situation. What would I be doing? What would this company be doing? I think this is the path, how we can find the vision, both for ourselves and both for the companies that we are working for.
• 12:44
  Melinda Lee: Right right versus doing what they prescribe you to do. And it's so automatic because everybody is, they have their clear roles, clear tasks at that. But then, at the same time.
• 12:56
  Melinda Lee: you have a vision. You're if you continue to ask, what is my vision?
• 13:02
  Melinda Lee: What was that question that you just said, what is the ideal.
• 13:05
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yes, idle situation.
• 13:06
  Melinda Lee: Situation here, keep asking that, and then if it's not in alignment with what you're doing like you said, say something about it right? You never know who you're going to meet, who the audience is that needs your help.
• 13:18
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yeah, actually, because if you don't ask, the answer is always no.
• 13:22
  Melinda Lee: Yes.
• 13:23
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Thanks.
• 13:24
  Melinda Lee: Fine. What's the ideal situation, then? Yeah, you don't even get to ask.
• 13:29
  Oguzhan Aygoren: And and yeah, that's true. And if when you define this ideal situation, or even this crazy idea, it becomes your direction for the big vision. It shows you the direction it shows you, the path. Maybe you create the path. You just draw the path by yourself by walking on the path, but it is your
• 13:49
  Oguzhan Aygoren: light which enlightens that path which we which which is a guide for you, I mean the vision is your guide by building and following the path, and while doing that.
• 14:01
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I mean there is no there is no clear out map which shows you which step you will take.
• 14:11
  Oguzhan Aygoren: So while doing that, you need to be willing to ask forgiveness instead of asking permission.
• 14:19
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 14:20
  Melinda Lee: right? Because you're on doing to do big things. And along the way we're going to not be perfect. It's gonna be tough, but it's gonna be challenging. But that's when you know that you're doing things that stretch you, and you might need to ask for permission or a a forgiveness you might need to.
• 14:37
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Destra!
• 14:39
  Oguzhan Aygoren: That's true.
• 14:39
  Melinda Lee: I love that.
• 14:40
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yesterday.
• 14:41
  Melinda Lee: But that's the meaning of life like that's been. That's what brings excitement in our life.
• 14:46
  Oguzhan Aygoren: That's true, of course. I mean, I think I mean it's like the the. This is what I realized lately. It's like
• 14:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: before. I mean, you said. I mean, it is the meaning of like this. This is the big questions in life. First, st you don't think about in your twenties or thirties. You don't think you don't think about those kind of questions you're you're like, okay, what's gonna happen to me? Am I going to have a good career. Am I going to achieve that? I mean, you have those of these questions, and you like to achieve things. And you like to change the world. I mean, if the world doesn't change, you complain about it. You just say that people don't understand you, but
• 15:24
  Oguzhan Aygoren: after that, after that stage in your forties. You tend to realize that. Oh, my God! In order to change the world first, st I need to change myself, and once you change yourself, you realize that the world changes automatically, based on your view of the world.
• 15:39
  Melinda Lee: I I agree, I agree right versus complain. Hey, change ourselves, change our like, have more responsibility and ownership in the creation of the ideal situation.
• 15:52
  Melinda Lee: and then the world will change and align itself to to support you.
• 15:57
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I mean what? Yeah, it's like, actually, Einstein saying, logic takes us from A to B, but the imagination takes us anywhere. So
• 16:07
  Oguzhan Aygoren: I mean most people do not imagine. Do not imagine what is possible. I mean, even when I ask people, okay, what's your vision? What's your imagination? People say that. Okay, I would do that, but it's impossible to do. Come on, I mean, how do you know that it's impossible? I mean, you did not even attempt to imagine something out of it. So it's like this is what great entrepreneurs do when when you imagine
• 16:34
  Oguzhan Aygoren: even the impossible, you see that that impossible becomes possible.
• 16:40
  Oguzhan Aygoren: That's that's the beauty of having a big vision that that's that's what we can learn from Google Amazon, all those companies. And that's what they teach us.
• 16:50
  Oguzhan Aygoren: because when you have big vision, you realize that nobody knows nothing. I mean, everyone knows something, but everyone knows something to make something better, but not something which is thought impossible.
• 17:07
  Oguzhan Aygoren: And we can apply this thinking into our daily lives. We don't have to start the new Google. We don't have to be a billion dollar companies. We can apply it into our own lives.
• 17:18
  Oguzhan Aygoren: even working for a company. That's the big idea that I have that I would like to share with people.
• 17:25
  Melinda Lee: This is a good segue. So what is that leadership, golden takeaway, that one that you wanted to share with the world.
• 17:32
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Yeah, that that leadership goal is everyone
• 17:36
  Oguzhan Aygoren: is an entrepreneur. I'm not saying can be an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur, because I mean, once we are in life. Being a human being
• 17:44
  Oguzhan Aygoren: means that you need to own your own life, and it means becoming an entrepreneur. But not everyone is aware of that. I want everyone to become aware of that. They are entrepreneurs of their own lives. Everyone can design their own life. Everyone can have a big vision for their own life.
• 18:05
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and when you apply it, when you imagine it, you'll see the results, and once your vision is in line with the company that you are working with. You can see that you can realize that
• 18:19
  Oguzhan Aygoren: you are another ordinary employee. You can. You can imagine yourself as the CEO of the company. So what would you do if you were the CEO? You should ask these questions to yourself, and then maybe one day you become the CEO, or maybe one day, you are the one who start your own company. But you don't have to start from that. Just imagine yourself as if you are the founder as if you are the CEO, and start from your own life. And now you will see that it will grow
• 18:48
  Oguzhan Aygoren: from inward to outside. So it's something you start within yourself.
• 18:54
  Oguzhan Aygoren: and then you will see that it grows like a drop in the water.
• 19:00
  Melinda Lee: Oh, that's so beautiful! I love that I think people should save this episode. Listen to it every single morning on their way to work, and then you will see yourself grow and expand, and make change positive change in the world, in the company, in the world, and within yourself, in your own life to be happier and more fulfilled.
• 19:25
  Melinda Lee: That was amazing. Thank you so much for your time, your inspiration. I got a lot out of it today, I my goal and my vision is to change the way this world communicates.
• 19:38
  Melinda Lee: I don't know how I'm going to do that, but I believe when I keep talking about it, I'm gonna have all the right people support to help me through it. And so just like you just like you coming into. So I appreciate it.
• 19:50
  Oguzhan Aygoren: Thank you so much, Melinda, for the invitation I enjoyed. I enjoyed a lot.
• 19:54
  Melinda Lee: I had a great time. Thank you so much. Bye, listeners, until next time I'm your sister, and flow may prosperity flow to you and through you to others. I'll see you at the next episode. Bye, thank you.