WashingtonExec: If you could go back and give your younger self career and/or life advice, what would you say?
Kelly: I often feel like I am the luckiest person on Earth. I’m blessed with an amazing family and come to work every day and sit shoulder-to-shoulder with brilliant people who have as much passion as I do for the missions we support. Who could ask for anything more? That being said, I am sure I could have benefited from some advice throughout my career. If I were to pick two pieces of advice I would have benefited from the most I would say:
- Say “YES” to opportunity! I have fears just like everyone else does. I know my limits and try very hard not to overextend myself to avoid letting other people down. Still, when opportunities arose in my career that I may have been ill-prepared for, sometimes I said “yes,” and sometimes I said “no.” In retrospect, I feel I benefited most from the time I said “yes” even when saying “no” was the safer option. I wonder what might have been had I said “yes” to one or two of those opportunities when I said “no.”
- The grass isn’t greener over there, it’s just an illusion! Like most people, I was faced with difficult decisions at different times in my career. I benefited most from the decisions that were made after very careful analyses of data that I collected myself and then shared with my closest friends and confidants. After examination of the real facts (devoid of emotion) and then testing my conclusions with the people I respected the most, I rarely regretted making the ultimate decision. On the other hand, I occasionally made decisions supported mostly by emotion and contrived facts to support a thesis that a better solution existed elsewhere and then regretted it terribly. Fortunately, as an engineer I was taught to rely on fact more than emotion which has served me well –– I have very few regrets.