“Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” PicassoI grew up in Spain, where Picasso’s influence abounds. His words impacted me, and I am sure that everything good in my life came from having a plan, fervently believing in that plan, and taking persistent action. I know I can achieve anything when I set clear goals and truly align with the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of those goals. That alignment gives me purpose and inspires me to action every day.My plan to major in engineering at one of the most rigorous universities in Spain led to my early career success. I believed that an engineering foundation would give me the mindset, structure, objectivity, and decision-making skills I could use in many careers. That belief kept me focused throughout that challenging degree program.As a newly minted engineer, I thought solving complex technical problems would be the key to my success, but I quickly learned that organizational challenges are much harder to conquer than technical ones. Realizing the power setting the right business structures had on organizations, I decided to go further in this direction by attaining my MBA. This process that taught me how right Picasso was. A good friend told me, “You are a woman with a purpose. You have that spark of determination in your eyes.” Although I treasured that interaction and thought about it whenever I needed to pull myself up, it became abundantly clear to me a few years later during the scholarship application process for my Wharton MBA. At a panel interview, one of the panelists asked, “You are requesting a full scholarship… What happens if you do not get this scholarship? How are you going to get there?” My answer came straight from my heart, with full conviction, and without a hint of arrogance: “I am not sure how yet, but I will make it happen. I will be there.” I knew what I wanted to do and why - my goal was set, and I would achieve it. Picasso would have been proud of me!My tenure on the Apple Pay launch team taught me that when it comes to a team, a good plan requires the right mix of dreamers and realists. The dreamers push the realists, and the realists channel this impetus to jointly find the best ways to move forward. Being part of it and seeing first-hand the impact it had convinced me to build my teams in the same manner.I have many more goals for my future, and you can be sure I will continue to heed Picasso’s wise words that have served me so well to date.