Catalyst seventy is: What’s the best advice you received that encouraged you to follow your dreams? (or advice you’d give to others so they can follow their dreams.)

my words: It may sound counter-intuitive but I have found that the best advice I ever got was someone telling me that I couldn’t do something. When I was in high school, I visited Israel and this gentleman told me that if I wanted to study computers (which I did since I was seven) I should attend Carnegie Mellon University. I had never heard of the school so I ran back to my room and wrote it down in my diary. When I went back home (to Turkey), I told my teacher that I wanted to go to Carnegie Mellon. She told me that there was no way I could get in. I didn’t have what it takes, she said. I was so mad that I made it my mission to get in to the school. Not only did I get in but I graduated with both an undergraduate and a graduate degree in four years and I graduated with honors. I have since then learned that nothing motivates me as much as someone telling me I can’t do something.