Ryan Geiser: Be Flexible

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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Ryan Geyser with us. He is a current master's student at the University of Cambridge who will continue conducting Alzheimer's disease research for a PhD in chemistry on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. So welcome to the show, Ryan.

Thank you, Tyler. It's great to be here.

Awesome, man. Great to have you on. And we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Ryan, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Yeah, so one of the stories that I had, it might not be the best, but it is the earliest memory of my life. It was actually when I was 4 years old. I was in Ocean City, Maryland, and I had I actually almost got kidnapped from an elderly man who actually convinced me to go to his car to help him find a wallet that he had stated he would use to help buy a toy for me when I was away from my parents. And I was eager to do this because, you know, I was 4 years old, I was eager for a toy. And as soon as we had walked out of the store, he had put his arm around me and sort of tried to push me into his van. And this sparked something, sort of an intuition in me that fear or worrisome, or, you know, why is this going on now? And I quickly turned around and ran back in the store while he had actually run back into his car and ran off. And while it's not a very, you know, a best story to really tell, it does, I believe, demonstrate something that I think as we grow older we don't usually do, which in my opinion is start questioning people, start trusting maybe our intuition a little bit more, start wondering if, you know, the person, what they're saying is actually correct. So as you had mentioned, I'll be conducting and continue conducting Alzheimer's research, and it's a field that's very, you know, important right now, but it's also a field that I speak to many people, from people from my Uber driver to, you know, just family members who aren't professionals in this field. And, you know, when they hear about something off maybe like the Daily Mail or CNN, they instantly trust whoever the professional is just because they might have letters after their name like a PhD or an MD. And I believe this is something that really needs to be and really needs to change. Just as I was when I was a kid and I questioned, you know, is this guy truthful in what he's saying? Or does he have alternative motives? I think the same has to apply for everything that everyone needs to hear, and especially in things as I'm in with the medical field. I think that's an underlying message, that value that I really have grown to appreciate, to sort of critically analyze the situation, question it, You know, sometimes trust the gut.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Yeah, so one big thing, as you mentioned, I'm right now studying at the University of Cambridge, and in order— and how I was able to get here was I sort of applied to everything, no matter how difficult. And I know that's sort of cliché in some ways, but It was something that I had to sort of learn to do, to just keep applying. So in my field with medical research, funding is extremely low at times, no matter where you are in the world. I always see professors and academics applying for different grants to continue conducting research. I believe the NIH and NSF funding is down to nearly 5 to 3% at times for grant funding. And this is something that academics constantly realize on a daily basis, that while you get denied, you don't realize what's going on at the top, which these are people that are judging these proposals, for example, on their own basis. And it's become very relative. Especially on a lot of these very prestigious funding opportunities. I'd mentioned, you had mentioned that I'm on the Gates Cambridge, which is a highly prestigious scholarship that Bill Gates had developed to bring people to Cambridge. And I had actually applied last year for the same one, and I had the same application fairly this year. I didn't even get an interview last year. Didn't even get considered at all. And this year I was awarded it. And I actually used the similar application that I had used to get awarded the Whitaker Fellowship that I'm currently on for my master's degree. And this was after being denied by 5 other applications for other funding sources, which actually had less money than the Whitaker one. And I was this close. The application was due in about a week, and I didn't want to do any more writing, and I was done done with all these applications getting denied. And I finally, I just copied and pasted the entire same responses that I, as I did for the other ones I got denied. And I received this one. And it just shows how even if the same application is submitted to the same, to different, you know, the same sort of institutions, but different people are judging it, it shows how, how relative it can be at the top. For getting different positions, especially though it applies to different things like interviews. It just really motivates you to continue applying to everything.

What is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

I think the best, and being in academia I might be somewhat biased in this respect, but I think it's to continue to learn. I read so many reports about successful people spending time every day doing things like reading a magazine or newspaper. I knew at South Carolina in the Honors College they provided the USA Today for free every single day. I always enjoy being able to get up and read that, staying informed on what's going on in the world. Another part of that is also just speaking to people and and learning from them. You know, they have so much valuable insight. Everyone comes from different backgrounds. So I think that can continue to learn, continue to develop, that will assist you in forming different opinions on different issues and helping yourself grow, especially in business and especially in your overall life.

And I know that you are young, but if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Yeah, I think the big thing that I would give my younger self, uh, advice would be to not set myself up for one career path, but to be flexible. Um, in this world, in this day and age, there are so many ways to get to where you want to be. Um, this I don't believe was the case in a lot of places maybe 50 years ago. You know, when my father wanted to go into one specific industry, you know, there was specific steps you had to follow. If you want to be an engineer, you did engineering school and then you continued on. If you want to go to business, you did an MBA or, you know, it depends. But now there's just so many different ways, and I've seen so many students that were set on one career goal, and unfortunately, now when I see these students that had graduated, for example, and that failed at being able to make it to where they wanted to end up, they're not doing anything anymore. They weren't flexible, they weren't open to change. I see this a lot in, for example, medical school. Because I was coming from biomedical engineering, a lot of students in biomedical engineering that wanted to go off to medical school, and as soon as they got the denial, they were not able to they didn't know what to do, so they tried to figure out other different paths that they should have considered and been more flexible with before. I guarantee you I would never have ended up at the University of Cambridge with the scholarships that I have if I had stuck to one specific career path, and I still am saying to myself that I am not going to do that to myself because I believe it's just sort of a— it doesn't benefit you. In ways that being flexible does.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

I think it's sort of a simple one where it's just surrounding yourself with it. So I recall many studies, and I'm certain you've seen this on Facebook and things like that, that you become who you surround with. And in particular, that's a lot of times people who you interact with, who your friend group is, who your colleagues are. And if you hang out with optimists and hang out with people who are able to see the bright side and, you know, that are still realistic, of course, I believe that that is, and especially in my case, that is the key to being happy, is to just be able to surround yourself with that. And I think that leads to great success in the long run.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

A few years ago, it was actually for a course, I was reading Hardball by Chris Matthews, and it was a very interesting book. At first I wasn't a big fan of it, but then I realized how much it was able to provide me on insights on how to speak to people and how different politicians reach their own success in their lives. And one of the big things that I had taken away from this book was it was a whole chapter that was dedicated to it. It was stating the reasons why you should not only can, but should ask people to do things. In society right now, and I find myself struggling with this, is we're very hesitant to ask people to do things. We're afraid we're going to, you know, they're too busy or they're, you know, we don't want to capitalize. We don't even want to ask family members to do things because we just don't, you know, we're too worried that it could ruin relationships and things of that sort. And this being afraid to be able to sort of ask people to do things, don't want to irritate them, it actually is the opposite in a lot of cases. Politicians, as Chris Matthews was arguing, I realized this early on, and they realize that when you ask someone to do something for you, that person usually feels an investment in you. What do people who invest in things? They want to see it succeed in the long run. It showcases that a lot of times these people, these politicians, ask people to do things more than they will do things for other people. And that's just because those people then want to feel that they've invested in you, they want to see you succeed, and in the long run they'll continue to help you and improve in your business success.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Yeah. This is an interesting one. So it's a simple one. I say carpe diem, and I'm certain you've heard it. Seize the day. It's a very cliché one, but I had actually— I was trying to— I was spelling it for some paper or something a few weeks ago, and I saw online on Google the definition of it was— it was an exclamation— used to urge someone to make the most of the present time. And give little thought to the future. And actually, I would argue with the last part, with the part, give little thought to the future. When I would usually say this response to people and then this quote, in order to make the most of the day, in order to just be able to succeed in what your goals are in the long run. And when you seize the day, if you're, quote unquote, seizing it properly, then you're doing things that are setting you up for success in the future, whether that be business of any sort. And there's always an opportunity to seize the day, whether that's reconnecting with an old colleague that might be a perfect network later on in life, or that might be able to get you a job, or if that's just reading a book, It doesn't matter, but seizing the day, people always joke around. They ask me sometimes, "Hey Ryan, how are you?" I just say, "I'm doing well." They're like, "What have you been up to?" I just say, "Carpeing some diem." Something funny as that. Then they'll ask, "Oh, what do you mean?" While it is funny, it shows how the mentality that you should wake up every day feeling and feeling to be able to succeed, I think.

Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Great. Yes, that's— so you can either find me on LinkedIn, just Ryan Geyser here. If you'd like to reach out to me through email, or I'm working right now in the Center for Misfolding Diseases at University of Cambridge, so you'll be able to find all the information on on the lab as well as my contact details on there where you can reach out. I'm always open to speak to anyone who might be either, you know, applying maybe to different grad schools or different things of that sort, or applying to different big national scholarships or anything. I'll help in any way possible.

Perfect, man. Thank you again for coming on. We really appreciate it.

Great. Thank you so much, Tyler. It was great speaking to you. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.