Leadership lessons from taking a class—twice

A lesson of resilience and doing hard things

A leadership lesson from taking geometry--twice:

I recently attended a milestone high school reunion. We laughed a lot, admired each other's achievements, lent an ear to some's recent troubles, and honored those who've died. What really struck me was how different our memories are. An event so vivid to one classmate had no recall for me.

One memory I was proud to be reminded of was that I had taken Geometry--TWICE. My first stab yielded a C. I wanted an A.

A classmate at the reunion somehow remembered I'd taken Geometry twice. The second time around was during the period all my classmates were free. They hacky sacked on the school grounds outside my classroom while I revisited the hypotenuse and wondered when I'd ever use the transitive property of equality in real life.

We laughed hard about repeating Geometry, but then she said with seriousness, "I admire that you did that."

I appreciated hearing how someone remembered my resilience and willingness to do hard things in pursuit of a goal. These qualities are in me today in my career.

So I leave you with two nudges:

--Recall moments when you've done hard things. They may not seem hard in hindsight, but they were hard at the time.

--If you've admired a quality in someone for a while from a distance, let them know.