By: Naomie Chen, Grade 10
We started our year off with Sarah Friar’s experiences of bringing the community together as CEO of Nextdoor. Growing up in a community where people-to-people contact was important, Sarah shared insight as to how she transformed her values into reality at Nextdoor.
Our October workshop highlighted the importance of curiosity and finding balance as well. Prior to working with Nextdoor, Sarah spoke about her path towards where she was today. She talked about taking a gap year after high school which inspired a lot of her knowledge of working together in a society and neighborhood.
Following her gap year and college, Sarah struggled with finding a perfect profession. She shared how she discovered her dream career through finding her ikigai, a Japanese concept relying on four ideas: doing what you love, doing what the world needs, doing what you’re good at, and doing what can sustain your material life. Sarah talks about the cruciality of finding that balance, as she did when joining Nextdoor.
All in all, Sarah describes Nextdoor’s purpose as to foster a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood to rely on. She reminds us that while “we’re all born with bias, [Nextdoor is a place where you] learn and get more educated.” We are a community and we should work together as one.
Three takeaway quotes from Sarah’s talk are…
“Everyone has a role to play. We should be a very “we” society, not an “I” society.”
“Stay curious--that is such a beautiful thing in life.”
“To make everyone else be their best self, to do the best work of their lives: that's what I view my job as.”