Erik Blomgren
Self-Assessment
What is your unique gift? – Do you believe in it enough to invest everything you have in it?
My most unique gift is an eye for detail, second only to a refusal to give up once I’ve committed myself to something. I believe in myself enough to invest myself into anything, but none of my gifts in this regard lend themselves to any one thing, and as a result it is rather difficult for me to invest myself in any one direction.
What difference are you trying to make in the world? – How passionate are you about doing this?
I don’t quite know what kind of an impact I plan to have on the world; I only know that I want to make people happy and that making things run smoothly is the best avenue I have in that regard right now.
How do you define success for yourself? – What challenges do you face in order to create success?
Success for me is a pass/fail initiative. In this regard I sometimes set the bar too high, and end up setting myself up for failure as a result. In a college environment, success is often more difficult for me, generally due to failings in cooperative initiatives, primarily due to conflicting definitions of success between agencies.
What is career vision and a mission?
As far as my career and mission goes, I don’t quite yet know what I want to do. Generally speaking, I want to be involved in management. I haven’t really gotten much farther past that; I’m also interested in production, composition, and performance, but I have no understanding where I want to take any of those ideas, or if I want to pursue them as a career.
Can you innovate and creates value and successfully communicate that value to intended audiences?
I am quite effective at communicating ideas and values and am generally good at maintaining those values for an audience, though I am not always comfortable doing this as it can make me feel disingenuous.
Do you have a positive attitude?
I generally maintain a positive outlook, though this waxes and wanes depending on my situation. My positivity often reflects my mood, which has been known to sour on rare occasions, making me a moderately less positive person. I try to avoid letting my mood impact others around me, however, so this effect is generally negligible.
Have you set your goals? What is your road map to success? Can you set inspiring and realistic goals?
I have set some goals, up to a few years out so far. My road map takes me to an MBA but beyond that it diverges into a few different directions, and I haven’t managed to establish an order of priority in that regard. I have some trouble setting goals.
Do you have and/or acquire the necessary expertise to actualize your vision?
Unfortunately, I have no set vision to actualize; this makes it harder for me to pursue any particular goals or ends.
What are your priorities? Can you set priorities?
I am decent at prioritizing, as this has become a daily part of my life. I often find myself unable to do everything that I am assigned in a day, and as a result I end up being forced to prioritize my work.
What opportunities are you looking for? What opportunities are you creating or intend to create?
I have created some opportunities for myself in orchestra and hall management, though these things are not necessarily the only avenues I plan on pursuing.
How comfortable are you with uncertainty? What risks are you willing to take?
With uncertainty, I am extremely comfortable; my entire life has been balanced on uncertainty, like this perilous teeter-totter with cliff facing on either side. Risk is the same to me; it’s all part of the journey. In this sense I would say that I am particularly risk prone. If something is safe for me, it generally doesn’t feel inspiring or fulfilling to do, at least not for very long.
When facing challenges, do you persevere or do you walk away?
As stated, simple work doesn’t satisfy me for very long; I find work that requires perseverance and effort to be more worth my time. I unfortunately also find these projects harder to dig into unfortunately.
What experience have you learned the most from?
I’ve learned the most from my hardest work thus far, being concert hall management. That said, I’ve also learned a lot about how people work, and about hard labor from working construction. Both have been rewarding in their own ways.
What actions are you taking to realize your vision? Are you consistently taking action?
On realizing a vision, I have not quite settled. I am not consistently taking action as I have not quite established a consistently actionable vision.
How well do you put things in context? Are you able to easily respond to changes in your environment? What’s your best example?
I am fairly effective at putting things in context, and can respond easily to changes, however I am guilty at times of getting emotionally caught up in the little things, and causing problems for myself as a result. I am not quite sure what you’re asking for an example of here. Of when I had to put things into context? Or when my environment changed? Ummm, I had to switch to Euphonium in wind ensemble if that counts. I also had to switch from Linebacker to Lineman for a football season in high school. That sucked; I basically had to redo my entire nutrition and weightlifting plan in order to bulk up as quickly as possible.
What is your plan to continually grow and evolve? How have you grown or evolved in there past year or three?
I’ve been slowly and steadily evolving in my personal and public lives over the past few years. My only plan in that regard is to keep moving forward and see where I end up. Not much of a plan really.
How easy is it for you to reach out to others to ask for support and to offer help?
Up until recently this has actually been extremely difficult for me. I have always had trouble asking for help, though I have also had no difficulty offering it freely. I find I generally want to avoid being a burden, while also wanting to be as much of a help as I can. More recently I’ve had to become comfortable with asking for help.
How are you inspiring others to join and/or support your mission in order to create a financially sustainable enterprise that allows you to live your gift and contribute something valuable to society? – If you aren’t currently, how do you intend to?
I am not currently building an enterprise, but I work hard to support other’s visions in order to hopefully bring them comfort and strength on their ventures. I simply hope that they will return some of that support to foster an environment of creative success and sustainability, that I can then build upon down the road.
My name is Erik Blomgren, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
