In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iris Fu ’24 is seen juggling all sorts of passion projects and leadership positions. As an intern for a blockchain company and writer for her upcoming book about education and college admissions, Fu is also seen staying in tune with her creative side via creating videos on her Youtube channel.
With over 10,000 subscribers and nearly 600,000 total views (as of Aug. 21, 2020), Fu creates weekly videos ranging in content from college admissions, internships and productivity advice. With her college admissions video garnering over 150,000 views, Fu began creating more videos based on the questions she had been asked from viewers in the comments section. She touched on the impact Youtube has had in her life these past couple of months.
“[Youtube] is important to me because it’s a creative outlet I have,” Fu said. “I think the factors that go into fulfillment in any type of work is that you feel connected with other human beings, and my channel is definitely a way for me to do that… [With Youtube], you feel like you’re developing a skill and getting better. My youtube channel is really challenging me in terms of digital marketing and content creation. I love developing those skills, so I think it’s the combination of those two things that makes creating videos important to me.”
With juggling work for numerous different projects and jobs, Fu’s daily schedule is usually loaded with meetings for her blockchain internship, book writing sessions, filming and editing for her Youtube channel, writing sessions for her weekly newsletter and one-on-one consulting meetings with her high school clients regarding college admissions.
Before the pandemic had affected the world, Fu was looking forward to attending admit weekend and visiting Stanford, going to Costa Rica for her senior trip and celebrating her final year of high school with friends and family. With pandemic restrictions inhibiting Fu from doing some of these things, she shared her perspective to finding motivation to do the work you love.
“I guess maybe I’m kind of stoic about it because I don’t think the letdowns motivated me in any way,” Fu said. “… Motivation comes more from us doing things, accomplishing things and feeling good about it — those are the things that fuel our motivation to keep going. I think if you just keep doing stuff and you feel good about the work that you’re doing, then you’re going to have that motivation. It’s not really going to be the external things that affect your motivation.
Fu gives her advice for reflecting on where your motivation is being fueled from and being motivated to do the things you love.
“I would say adaptability and flexibility is really important — the world definitely favors those who can adapt more than those who can’t,” Fu said. “Try to get your sense of fulfillment from the things that are within your control rather than things that aren’t within your control like whether or not you can meet your classmates or go on campus [during the Fall].”
Contact Justine Ha at justinemha ‘at’ gmail.com.