Gary Murakami is Director of Global Sales at MGM Resorts International and is 2019 award recipient - Meeting Industry Leadership.
What has been the biggest challenge in your career?
My biggest challenge in my career was the occasional self-doubt and the inability to listen to my heart and instinct when it came to making decisions. I have on occasion listened to these words of doubt and negativity or reasoned with myself to not act upon my instincts, which prevented me and sometimes even paralyzed me from moving forward or achieving those dreams and goals. As I moved forward and further in my career, I learned to take moments to reflect and to really listen to my heart and to rely on the amazing community of family and friends, in addition to gain confidence in my own instincts, to surmount obstacles and challenges that seemed impossible to overcome.
What is the biggest challenge facing our industry today and what should we do about it?
The current speed of change and the need to maintain flexibility and adaptability are always areas of challenge and focus especially in these current times. This past year, this lesson and challenge became even more evident, as we as individuals, along with our entire meetings & events industry, learned the very real and hard lesson of the pandemic’s impact to our personal and professional lives. What inspired me were the resilience and unwavering optimism that we would all endure and eventually find ways to thrive and to grow from this experience. I look to embrace these changes and challenges each day and look at it as an opportunity to see and to process my thoughts and actions in different ways.
What are you most passionate about outside of your career and the meeting industry?
Travel is my passion outside of my career and the meeting industry, as I feel that the exposure to and the experience of other cultures opens our eyes to the amazing fabric that is our human race. Those unique differences are the very essence of what helps us to understand each other and to realize how much more alike than different we all are.
What’s the best advice someone gave you?
A previous sales leader shared with our team the need for perseverance and determination articulated through the quote of Jacob Riis – “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in town, and I know it was not that blow that did it but all that had gone before.”
What advice would you give to someone considering to volunteer?
My advice to our industry professionals would be to “be authentic, passionate and engaged”. What I have learned in the more than twenty years of being in this industry are the realization and understanding that our community and network play a critical role in our personal and professional development. We must stay dedicated and committed to our own development through educational pursuits and continue to have a passion for curiosity and learning. We are also in the industry of people and community, and I believe in the importance to continually develop and cultivate one’s network. Finally, our industry must also continue to elevate the visibility and significance of meetings & events and its strength and impact to inspire social and economic change. We as leaders must serve as role models for future professionals by being active and engaged and inspire others that their individual voices are important and essential to the fabric of our industry growth, visibility, and sustainability.
