Bill is an occupational therapist from California. He has been practicing since 2012. Currently, he practices in skilled nursing facilities setting. He also is an adjunct faculty at Stanbridge University. Bill is finishing up his first term as the California #2 rep for the AOTA Representative Assembly. Bill was a speaker for TEDxGrandForks in 2015 and TEDxYouth@AlamitosBay in 2017. He was also the curator for TEDxAlmansorPark in 2019. Bill is passionate about autism, leadership, and social media in occupational therapy. Successes and failures and what I got out of the experiences. Failures/Setbacks 1. During my time as a student for my masters, I was amongst the bottom dwellers of my class. I barely got by kinesiology and neuroscience. Phys dys was my worst subject. I was able to get through this part because I generally built pretty strong rapport with my classmates. They encouraged me to keep fighting and reminded me that finishing up the degree is what matters. Now I am passing on this advice to students I come across on social media. Of course, these experiences were also assets as a faculty, too. I have students told me that because I experienced these struggles, I am able to relate to them better while giving them hope in the process. 2. I found out I have Asperger's in the middle of year 1 and year 2 of OT school. At that time, I was able to put a name to my struggles. But, it was not easy to figure out what accommodations I needed, let alone quickly. I contemplated a leave of absence even though I tried what I can to find hope and support. Turning point of this happened when I was attending the NBCOT/AOTA Student Conclave in 2010. I met Jaclyn Schwartz, who was the ASD Steering Committee chair at the time in person for the first time. We got to know each other because we ran against each other for that position a few months before that. Long story short, Jaclyn gave me a pep talk when we were waiting for our flights to return home from the conference. After she left, even though I still was searching for hope, Jaclyn's words rekindled my passion for OT again. Soon after, we started our unofficial friendly rivalry, as we try to challenge one another to do great things in OT. (I have been joking that our relationship has become one of the best friendly rivalries of all time in OT.) 3. My first year of working clinically was a struggle. I thought my first job was a good fit- location reasonably close to home, having some familiarity with my supervisor, having past successes in school based level 2 fieldwork, and I have a reasonable strong foundation of autism knowledge. However, it ended up exposing many of my weaknesses instead- weaknesses in behavior management, poor play and executive functioning skills. On top of that, I ended up having a relapse after I managed my anxiety well prior to that. So, I abruptly left that job 3 months into it. I then had an unsuccessful attempt at private practice for a year. When I decided to go for a paycheck-to-paycheck job again, I ended up taking a leap of faith to try skilled nursing facilities setting. Instead of taking a full time position right away, I chose to do per diem and started at 20-25 hours a week. My rationale was that I wanted to learn about the setting in my own terms and pace. This strategy turned out to be successful as I was able to become a full time therapist 1.5 years later. 4. I applied for the then AOTA Emerging Leaders Development Program 3 times and got rejected for all 3. I knew I needed some seasoning and mentorship even though many of my contemporaries thought that I was further along than them. Rather than giving up, I decided to build my own mentoring team. This has turned out well for my career. Meanwhile, these rejections gave me swagger to do my best in every OT leadership position I get to have. Of course, how my career is turning out also