North Columbus News

Students at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business recently participated in a leadership event focused on embracing risk and learning from failure. The event, titled “Embracing Risk in Campus Experience, Career and Life with Harlan Cohen,” took place on October 4 at Pfahl Hall on the Columbus campus.

Participants engaged with motivational speaker Harlan Cohen and peers in discussions about taking risks in education, careers, and life. Cole Heidelberger, a finance major who initiated the event, was inspired by Cohen's social media posts earlier this year. He collaborated with Jen Shanahan from the Dean’s Leadership Academy and Lorraine Pennyman from the Undergraduate Programs office to organize the event.

“We started putting different ideas together,” Heidelberger said. “We started off with Harlan Cohen and we added in the other three guest speakers to grow the event and formed a student committee over the summer and kept working with them to polish off ideas.”

The aim of the event was to enhance students' leadership skills. Pennyman emphasized supporting student initiatives: “With our Leadership and Engagement team, we really want to try to highlight student initiatives and support their leadership development,” she said.

Cohen shared his insights on success during his presentation. A New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including “Win or Learn: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection Into Your Ultimate Success,” he has family ties to Ohio State through his father.

“I love this school,” he said. “My dad’s a Buckeye. He was excited I was coming here.”

Cohen advised students to explore career opportunities by connecting with mentors and professionals through networking events and platforms like LinkedIn.

“I look at all this as, how can I connect with people?” he said. “How can I do my best? How can I help people? How can I learn about people? What are the tools available? And going hand in hand with that is taking risks.”

After his talk, Cohen led a panel discussion featuring Fisher alumnus Adam Othman and fourth-year students Karan Gaglani and Brian Lum.

Othman recounted how perseverance helped him secure an internship after initially being passed over by another company: "I can use this failure as a springboard," he said.

Gaglani shared his journey from applying to several clubs before becoming president of Buckeye Capital Investors: "Just keep pushing out of your comfort zone," he advised.

Lum discussed how joining student organizations boosted his confidence: "When you give yourself those daily affirmations, it really will bring you far in life," he stated.