An AI expert credits her Big Tech career success to 'The Secret.' These 3 lessons made the biggest impact.

• Jigyasa Grover credits 'The Secret' for leading to her career success in AI and tech roles.
• The book influenced her to set ambitious goals and visualize achieving them.
• Grover emphasizes combining visualization with hard work and collaboration for success.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jigyasa Grover interned at Meta and worked at X for over four years as a senior machine learning engineer. She was hired as a senior data scientist at the San Francisco startup Faire before taking on her current full-time role as the lead of AI and research at Bordo AI.

She's also on Google's Developer Advisory Board and is an AI advisor at Diem. She achieved all this since graduating with her computer science degree in 2018.

Alongside her hard work, Grover told Business Insider that Rhonda Byrne's best-selling 2006 self-help book "The Secret" has influenced her approach toward achieving higher career goals.

Grover read "The Secret" in 10th grade

She said "The Secret" had a "profound impact" on her approach to professional goal setting and overcoming self-doubt.

"It's not about magically manifesting things but about developing a powerful mindset that fuels action," Grover said. "The book was particularly helpful in teaching me to establish specific, realistic goals and then make them a reality."

Here are three strategies Grover leveraged from "The Secret" to improve her mindset and reach big goals on her Big Tech career journey.

1. Focus on far-fetched dreams, not just on what seems realistic

Before reading "The Secret," Grover's approach to goal-setting focused only on what felt "realistic." She said that Byrne's book encouraged her to dream bigger and set goals based on her true desires, even if they initially seemed far-fetched.

In addition to her interest in working with AI and machine learning, Grover had another goal she felt she couldn't reach anytime soon: Writing a book.

In 2019, using techniques she learned from "The Secret," she began "really focusing" on her vision of being a published author. She often thought about it during her daily walks.

"I visualized not just holding the finished book but explaining complex machine-learning concepts in clear, accessible ways," Grover said. "I pictured myself breaking down the data preparation process I'd learned through my work at Twitter and my research at UC San Diego."

After starting this visualization practice, Grover said an opportunity for book publication presented itself much sooner than she expected. She moved from the initial concept to the self-published book "Sculpting Data for ML" in less than a year.

"Since I had this at the forefront of my mind, I was quick to notice and pursue opportunities to author, and the universe truly presented me with a path that I couldn't have imagined," Grover said.

That path involved finding a coauthor with complementary expertise and unexpected time to bring a book project to fruition. While Grover had been contacted by a few publishing houses in 2019 about possible book projects, she lacked the time and bandwidth to pursue the opportunities then.

"When the pandemic hit, the resulting shift in my schedule and circumstances created the perfect window for me to self-publish on my own terms," she said.

2. Visualize yourself already achieving your goals

Grover explained that a critical part of "The Secret" is imagining you've already reached your desired outcome. "Before every project, I make sure I have a strong belief in my ability to deliver the project," she said.

Whenever she's faced with an opportunity, whether in a fast-paced startup environment or a challenging engineering environment at Big Tech, she makes sure to visualize herself performing well in that role. "This really helps to calm my nerves, stay the course, and reach my final goal," Grover said.

She used this Secret-inspired method once during the post-acquisition chaos at X, where she worked from 2019 to 2023.

"This presented a huge challenge: massive layoffs, uncertainty about the future, and key stakeholders were gone, threatening the entire product road map," Grover said. "Seeing my talented teammates go was tough, so to navigate this, I started visualizing myself emerging stronger."

Grover stayed at X for several months after the acquisition and through the bulk of the layoffs. "I saw it as an opportunity to lead through change, support my team during an incredibly difficult time, and prove my resilience," she said.

With a focus on deep breathing and "this too shall pass," Grover pictured leveraging the situation's turbulence: Becoming more adaptable, building stronger relationships with the few remaining teams, and learning to navigate constant curveballs.

She sets aside 15 minutes every night before bed to disconnect from the day's work to focus on a particular challenge, trying to see the bigger picture and envisioning the impact she can make.

She writes down three specific technical or creative challenges she wants to tackle, breaking the large chunk of work into bite-sized pieces. She then visualizes herself solving each one, focusing on the positive impact and celebrating the accomplishment of each milestone.

If doubt creeps in about tricky areas, Grover creates plans to tackle them the next day and reinforces her belief in her plans through her focused vision.

3. Go beyond mere visualization to inspire your efforts

Grover said the secret to maximizing these methods should go beyond visualizing your desired outcome. She suggests you believe things can be done and use your visualization as a springboard to work hard, collaborate well with others, and maintain a strong vision.

"I truly believe it's the combination of the technical expertise — with the mindset to deliver on those skills — that made all of my success possible," Grover said.

Grover believes the balance of practical machine-learning engineering skills — with her unwavering belief in the project's success — ultimately led her to publish her book. She believes that "The Secret" also played an indirect role in landing her current job.

She said that when she applied, Bordo AI was a very early-stage startup building a new type of AI solution."The Secret" inspired her to envision the company succeeding in revolutionizing data analysis with AI. "It helped me cultivate a mindset that allowed me to see opportunities where others might see risks," Grover said.