Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a leading AI expert and Sequoia Capital professor of computer science at Stanford University.

With all her scientific and technical knowledge, it was utterly surprising and inspiring to me that she spoke about following her North Star when making her career decisions in an interview with Daniel Roth – Editor in Chief, VP at LinkedIn:

“I do identify with a North Star about different stages of my life… once I have that North Star, the size of the paycheck or the apartment I should rent, they become less important because how I make decisions will be orienting towards the North Star that really matters to me… our responsibility is a great guiding light.”

North Star is about living life principles, the choice to focus on discovering what you want, living up to your potential, and knowing what is truly important to you. It’s related to living your destiny, passions, and dreams.

Sailors used the North Star or Polaris to navigate before modern means. It was their compass to find their way home.

People use North Star awareness as their anchor and internal GPS for direction and the need to be true to themselves.

In business, the North Star can be a mindset and mission, the values that drive a company, such as the metric to help customers succeed, the purpose and effect of a product, and ethically growing profits.

We seldom think of CEOs or other leaders as emotionally and spiritually in touch with their own North Star or inner vision, instincts, and desires to live their best and right life, but they are. It’s something that coaching addresses and promotes.

People have rituals, practices, and routines to center or balance their lives, such as building a daily gratitude journal, connection with core values, exercise, yoga, meditation, fasting and food, prayer, specific books, people they respect, and learn from, music, and podcasts.

These people and books come to mind – Dr. Martha Beck – Deepak Chopra – Adam Grant – Arthur Brooks –  Susan Scott – “Finding Your Own North Star” – “The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” – “Abundance” – “North Star Thinking” – “Fierce Leadership.”

“Explorers depend on the North Star when there are no other landmarks in sight. The same relationship exists between you and your right life, the ultimate realization of your potential for happiness. I believe that a knowledge of that perfect life sits inside you just as the North Star sits in its unaltering spot.” – Dr. Martha Beck.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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This matters too – Your Skills are Your Destiny.

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(photo –  Dr. Fei-Fei Li – TED Talks)