How to Turn Your Potential Into Opportunity — with Mariela Dabbah

What if one of the biggest things standing between you and your potential isn’t a lack of talent—but a lack of exposure? Exposure to what’s possible. Exposure to people who have already been where you want to go. And exposure to opportunities that can completely change the direction of your life. My guest in this episode is Mariela Dabbah, who has built her career helping people recognize those opportunities and create more of them for themselves. Mariela is an author, speaker, and expert on career development and Latino success in the United States. She is the author of How to Get a Job in the U.S., Help Your Children Succeed in School, and co-author of The Latino Advantage in the Workplace. But what I love about this conversation is that it goes far beyond career advice. Mariela shares how she went from writing her first novels as a nine-year-old girl in Argentina to building a career as an author and nationally recognized speaker. We talk about what she learned from failure, how to identify the strengths that make you different, why mentors don’t always have to be people above you, and how to deliberately build a network when you don’t already have one. And she shares an idea that gets right to the heart of Discover Possible: You can dream about becoming almost anything—but dreams become possible when you understand the steps, find the people who can show you the way, develop the skills, and then put your attention and effort behind making it happen. Mariela also makes a powerful distinction about relationships and opportunity: It isn’t just about how many people you know. It’s about how many people know you. This conversation is about becoming visible, creating opportunity, learning from the people around you, and discovering that you may be capable of far more than you currently realize. Here’s my conversation with Mariela Dabbah.