My chat with Maya who is Head of Marketing for Asia Pacific at Amdocs , revolved around two themes: taking risks and the growth mindset, her Shiny New Object.

Through her career development, Maya says he’s been “beaten up” in marketing agencies, learning the tricks of the trade the hard way, and developing the confidence to stand up for herself and take calculated risks.

But, before all that, she had an unusual start: “I ended up with my first boss… by choosing a book.” This set the tone for how she would grow her career, too. During a first job interview, asked about her favourite book, Maya went for a bold, unorthodox answer – Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. It made her stand out and got her the role.

Later on, she would test being “out of the ordinary” in different contexts, such as when she had an unexpected but “very turnkey moment” as one of her biggest work disasters.

Turning down a coffee run for her boss at a junior stage in her career, Maya drew a red line, defining a work boundary that would never again be crossed. This taught her an important lesson she lives by to this day: “Sometimes you need to take the types of risk that don’t have to mean moving across to the other side of the world.”

What this means is that small, apparently insignificant risks for their time, can become turning points that reaffirm your self-belief and help you grow. Maya strongly believes in breaking down big challenges into digestible parts, which led us to discuss her Shiny New Object, adopting a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset.

A person with a growth mindset thrives on change and challenge, believing that they can learn from any small failure and that their character and abilities are not set in stone (as opposed to someone with a fixed mindset).

However, being positive and adopting a growth mindset in every aspect of every day can prove challenging. This is why Maya has found that breaking the big moments down into “quick wins” is what keeps her going on the growth mindset path.

Tom Ollerton is the Founder of Automated Creative. Subscribe to the ‘Shiny New Object’ Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud.