We recently connected with Alrick Bills and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alrick, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
From an early age, I have always been fiercely independent. While I enjoyed spending time with friends, I was always comfortable being on my own. Some people need to be around others to be content or happy, but that was never the case with me growing up. Whether riding my bike or playing my drums, I always found things to do on my own that brought me joy. Being naturally curious and observant, that separation allows me to collect my thoughts and form my own opinions. When in a group where my views didn’t align with the pack, I had no issues being the outsider. It didn’t matter whether the reason was opinion, morals or personal values. Some will sacrifice these things to avoid being an outsider, but my confidence and self-esteem only grew with age due to my independence. The more lessons life taught me, the more comfortable I became, knowing that this foundation would support me throughout my life. This path can be lonely at times, but my personal convictions have fueled my self-esteem year after year. I am more comfortable in my skin now than ever before.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Professionally, I am focused on specific things in the worlds of business, nonprofits, and my artistic career.
In business, I am focused on helping change the world by getting more people on bikes. This is one of the pillars of the mission at my company, Trek Bicycle Corporation. From age 5, when I learned to ride a bike, I have always been passionate about cycling. The sense of freedom and adventure was the initial draw. The bike was my sanctuary as I grew older and developed an appetite to explore and stay fit. Working in this industry is a dream come true and I am fortunate to connect my experience in retail leadership with my passion for bikes. Reducing car trips with bikes helps the environment and helps people live healthier lives. Go by bike!
In the nonprofit space, I volunteer for a local organization called Walk With Sally (walkwithsally.org). They provide support to children who have a parent, guardian or sibling impacted by cancer. For the past five years, I was a mentor to a teenage boy in the program whose mother endured two rounds of breast cancer. She’s doing very well and he is now a high school graduate. Being a small part of their organization and contributing to his personal development has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life!
Finally, as for my artistic career, I have actively engaged in music since I was a child. It started with radio and vinyl before progressing to music education in grade school. I learned percussion at age 10 and performed in concert band, orchestra, marching band, jazz band, and drumline. After school, I took a break from performing to start my working career. After joining the musical instrument industry on the retail side, I rediscovered my passion for performing live music and joined several bands. I started with cover bands before joining a group that plays original music: TruckerBomb. The style is Americana, which is a big departure from the hard rock covers I played before. It’s also a return to my roots of the music heavily influenced by country that I heard throughout my youth growing up in Bakersfield, CA. Life comes full circle.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Curiosity, Growth and Determination. These qualities have served me well in life, and one feeds the other. Growing up as a perceptive child, I was always curious about things. How does that work? How can I learn that skill? What do I need to achieve my goals? How can I convince them to choose me? How can I make a difference? The same quality fuels all these questions and more and will take you farther in life than you imagine.
Curiosity feeds growth on both a personal and professional level. Life is the best teacher, and I certainly experienced my fair share of growth through countless lessons. Sometimes, it happens organically from mistakes that force growth. Other times, it was intentional, and I would recognize the opportunities and seek out the paths to lead me to grow. From fighting my independent nature and walking up to someone I didn’t know to take on professional challenges that would lead me to bigger and better things. Having a growth mindset has been so important to my development.
From this point, I would only succeed with the requisite level of determination. This stems from the confidence in my abilities and the understanding that I know what I am capable of, and it’s more than I realize. From pushing myself to pursue a big promotion at work that would stretch my abilities to the limit to completing the final climb of a seven-day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon in the dark, my determination to succeed kept me moving to achieve my goals.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
They showed me the importance of living life guided by your values. My parents grew up poor without the material objects I enjoyed as a kid. They were humble and worked hard for everything they received in life. When I was a kid, my parents did all they could to provide for our family.
My father worked in retail management and one summer he took me to work for a week. I would help stock shelves, sweep floors, and watch him complete paperwork in his office before dropping the day’s deposit off at the bank. At the end of the day, he would pay me $1, which formed my understanding of the value of hard work.
My mother worked for a phone company, and her shifts varied every week. No matter how wacky her schedule was or how tired she got, she always made time for us. She was always engaged in my school activities when I was a kid and wanted to know about my career journey when I was an adult. When things weren’t always going my way, she would remind me not to complain about it because it didn’t accomplish anything. Simply adjust and work hard to get the results you desire.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://truckerbomb.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aspiritbreakingfree/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alrick.bills
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alrickbills/
- Other: https://walkwithsally.org/
Image Credits
Pierre Quinton
