Silver Linings Blog: Expand

Soyol Tushigbat, Relationship Manager, Silicon Valley Bank

On July 8, 2019, my fiancé (now husband) and I bought our very first property. It was a one‐bedroom
condo in downtown Denver, only 3 blocks from my office. We couldn’t have been happier and were
incredibly excited for what the future would hold! Seven months later, we found that we couldn’t have
been more wrong.

On March 13, 2020, I was told to take my work laptop home with me home just in case
we didn’t return to office the following week. Like most people, I did not think much of this, and I assumed
we would be back in the office soon. I packed up my computer and other personal items and went home.
We all know what happened next!

The first week, I enjoyed working from home; not having to get ready in the morning and having breakfast,
lunch, and dinner at home with my husband was a welcome change. But as we all can remember, things
started to escalate quickly from there—everything became more uncertain as time passed and no one
had any real answers.

As we were trying our best to navigate through the early pandemic days, my husband found out that he
would be furloughed for an unknown amount of time and shortly after that, my employer announced that
they were going to lay off employees. Of course, I was worried as I was the most junior person on the
team at the time. In addition to that, we were preoccupied with COVID, protests, the election, etc. Luckily,
my husband was furloughed for only a month, and I kept my job.

As I went into 2021, I realized that I had not grown as a person because I was so focused and consumed
by the news around us. So, I promised myself to focus on my goals and growth in the New Year. A few of
the goals that I set for myself were to read more books, attend more networking events, exercise
regularly, and spend more quality time with friends and family. And as it turns out, 2021 turned out to be
one of the best years of my life! We accomplished the most—a wedding, a new house, and a new job!

The last couple of years taught me that what you focus on, whether it is good or bad, EVOLVES and
EXPANDS to become your reality. When the same outside distractions appeared in 2021, I’ve learned to
not pay much attention, but kept my eyes on myself and my goals. We should be cognizant of what we
are being consumed by, the good or the unnecessary distractions. We should focus on ourselves, our
goals, and growth because the more we focus on those things, the more they will evolve and expand to
become our reality.

 

About Soyol

I began my career as a financial analyst with Well Fargo’s commercial team in Denver working with companies with revenues between $50M up to a few billion. During my tenure at Wells Fargo, I held multiple roles including portfolio manager and relationship manager. Currently, I am a relationship manager with Silicon Valley Bank where I am providing banking services to mature/late-stage technology companies.

I am a graduate of University of Colorado at Boulder, where I majored in accounting and finance. I currently live in Denver with my husband. We love traveling, hanging out with friends, and trying new restaurants!