At a guest speaker series for the International Business Association Monday night, Mayor Robert Garcia encouraged attending students by urging the importance of persistence.
“If you feel like it’s your time, then just go for it,” Garcia said. “You’re not going to win all of them; you win some, you lose some, but you try and you take some risks.”
IBA hosts four different guest speakers each semester in order to encourage members to pre-emptively learn from local leaders’ experiences.
“A lot of times, students look back and say, ‘If only I knew,’” Armando Morales, the IBA president and a senior international business major, said. “By brining these guest speakers, [IBA members] can get advice from these leaders to start now, to know what to do so they won’t say that in the future.”
During the Q-and-A portion, Garcia commented on the importance of learning from failure.
“Personally I believe that you learn a lot more by losing,” Garcia said.
Scott Schultz, a public policy administration graduate student, sought advice from Garcia on his recent Associated Students, Inc. Vice President candidacy loss.
“Do you have any advice on how to rebuild or recuperate?” Schultz asked.
Garcia responded by saying that his first experience of losing the race for ASI president while attending CSULB in 1999 was a large learning experience for him.
“It sucks to lose, nobody wants to lose…” Garcia said. “All you can really do is take the experience and take what you can learn from it to do a better job.”
Garcia then went on to run again and become ASI president the following year.
Morales said that it was an honor to have Garcia as a guest speaker. He said that because as a California State, University Long Beach alumnus, Garcia could closely identify with the student body.
“He’s been in our shoes,” Morales said. “He can give us some of the best advice because he knows the community and he knows where we’re coming from.”