After many years within the enterprise world, Maya Rogers is aware of that not all career advice is value taking.
Rogers, 47, is the CEO of Tetris, the online game her dad, Henk Rogers, helped deliver to the world within the Nineteen Eighties and created an organization round in 1996.
Rogers was charting her personal path at firms like Honda and Sony when, in 2005, her father had a near-fatal coronary heart assault at age 52. It was a “wakeup call,” Rogers tells CNBC Make It, and so she moved house from LA to Honolulu to study from and work with him.
Rogers joined the corporate as a director of enterprise growth in 2007 and took over as president and CEO by 2014.
She’s since gotten a lot of advice because the boss of Tetris, however not all of it has been worthwhile.
She as soon as consulted a trusted advisor about a possibility to create a crossover undertaking with Puyo Puyo, a well-liked puzzle recreation sequence in Japan. At the time, it was largely unknown exterior of Japan, Rogers says, and the advisor cautioned that the partnership may dilute the Tetris model.
“After careful consideration, I decided to move forward, believing it was an opportunity to bring a fresh twist to Tetris and expand our audience,” Rogers says.
Puyo Puyo Tetris launched in 2014 and has grown right into a sequence with a number of installments which have bought thousands and thousands of copies worldwide, Rogers says. The alternative strengthened Tetris’ presence in Japan, launched Puyo Puyo to new audiences globally, and impressed a aggressive esports scene, she provides.
“This experience taught me that trusted advice is valuable, but sometimes the boldest decisions come from trusting your own instincts,” Rogers says.
“Seek as much advice as possible,” she says. “But also, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make mistakes. You might fail. But that’s part of the journey. And that’s how you learn and grow.”
Thoughtful dangers can result in development, even once they go in opposition to standard advice, she provides: “You cannot innovate if you never take risks.”
‘Nobody succeeds alone’
In the vein of serving to other entrepreneurs take calculated dangers, Rogers co-founded Blue Startups in 2012, a enterprise accelerator that goals to assist Hawaii-based and women-led companies.
Supporting women in business is a key situation for Rogers, contemplating simply over 2% of venture capital funding goes to firms with women-only founders, as of 2024 information.
The accelerator has invested in over 100 companies and features a community of over 250 mentors, Rogers says. Some companies deal with fixing points particular to girls, together with one which helps army wives discover jobs, and one other that helps girls entry medical care.
“It’s not that women aren’t capable, it’s just that we’re not getting the right exposure to be funded to grow our businesses,” Rogers says.
Beyond funding, Rogers says the the accelerator’s community of mentors has been invaluable: “Nobody succeeds alone,” she says. “You hear time and time again that when people start a company, they had somebody that helped them along the way.”
Mentorship has performed a job her in personal career by offering a group of supporters to assist her acknowledge achievements she’s fast to downplay, like a recent award from the Women in Toys trade group.
“It’s so hard to take compliments, especially as women. But we’re the biggest champions of other people,” Rogers says. “As women we lead with heart, we can lead with confidence [and] intuition. Getting validation from mentors is a big part of it, like ‘Oh yeah, I should be proud.'”
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