The More You Learn, the Less You Know
Name: Sergio
Title: Senior Lean Process Improvement Analyst
Location: Lake Park, UT
Pronouns: He/Him
My personal brand
Latino, Leader, Mexican American, Father, Husband, Lifelong Student.
Being proud of myself and my journey
As a Latino, I struggled with the idea of highlighting what I did or accomplished at work. I saw it as unnecessary bragging. I was always taught to keep my head down, work hard, and people will notice, so navigating the corporate environment was hard for me. An understanding that it’s essential to highlight your contributions as well as the contributions of others was something I had to learn. You have to be deliberate and intentional about your career; this is one key aspect of doing so. Working on this opened several doors for me in my career. It’s still something I consciously have to work on in my day-to-day in the corporate environment.
I’m a first-generation college graduate. I honestly thought I would never get the chance to finish school and Discover made that possible. I’m forever grateful for that. I can still remember the pride in my mother’s and grandparents’ eyes the day I graduated. It wasn’t easy. I had to balance work, family, and schooling all at the same time and I had some very long days. I was part of the first ever LEAP program which led to the creation of the Discover College Commitment. We would take 8-13 credit hours in an 8-10 week “semester” so that we could finish school in a short amount of time. That’s 16-26 credit hours within the traditional timeframe of a “normal” semester! I spent a lot of sleepless nights in pursuit of my degree.
I proudly hang my degrees in a hallway in our home. One of my proudest moments was hearing my son call out to me on his way down the hallway, “Daddy, I’m going to go to college just like you.”
Eye-opening learning
A hard truth I’ve learned over the years is simple “the more you learn the less you know.” You see the world now through a small lens. As you educate yourself, learn, gain experience, and grow, that lens widens. You realize there is more to life, work, education, and industry than you could have imagined.
If you are the smartest person in the room, [1] you’re most certainly wrong and need to check your ego, and [2] it’s important that you understand that you don’t know everything.
Communication is key
I lean into communicating openly, often, and honestly. The quote “The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it took place,” stands out to me. Never make assumptions about others’ capabilities, understanding, or level of commitment to the work. You’d be surprised how many people want to do an exceptional job and just need someone to have an open and honest conversation with them.
Part of the change
DE&I means everything to me and it’s the reason I work with HOLA and one of the key reasons I’m at Discover. DE&I is how we create a safe space for tough conversations that advance the need for greater diversity in the workforce and inspire others, often of the same demographic, to reach their full potential. The great thing about Discover is that I see this in all they do. They’re not just an organization that “talks the talk.” They “walk the walk” and act to advance DE&I within the organization. Discover is not afraid of shining a light on our opportunities and taking steps to improve. That’s one thing I appreciate the most about this organization.
Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates those who came before, it acknowledges those who work hard and often go unnoticed. It represents my parents’ sacrifices for a brighter future for me and my sisters. It represents humility, it represents patience, it represents a hope for the future. It represents that one Latino who humbles himself in a labor-intensive job when they were a lawyer in their own country so future generations might have a brighter future.