Failure, Redemption and Getting What We Want: A Story of Self-Leadership

A few years ago I got rejected from a prestigious leadership development program for a blue-chip company.

While I would love to tell you I took it in stride and kept right along, I didn’t.

That failure became a keystone event for a couple years. I talked to myself differently because of it. I defined myself by it.

This came after leaving a good stint at Boeing and completing an MBA at a top 25 program. I don’t say this to brag, I say this to illustrate how completely fucking out-of-touch with reality I was.

I got back on my feet and muddled along for a while.

What changed is when I finally stopped getting in my own way.

I had previously been in a scarcity mindset. I realized this was self-limiting in the worst kinds of ways. Besides, the truth is our potential for progress and success is uncapped.

New keystone habits like getting back in shape and writing every day built potent new discipline. That discipline carried over into my sales career and delivered watershed results. Those results led all the right kinds of attention because when it comes down to it; if you want to get noticed you have to do things worth noticing.

Then, without even looking for it, the email inviting me to my company’s leadership development program arrived in my inbox.

Today was the first day of that program., coming full circle on a failed gamble almost 6 years ago.

Sometimes we must stop and ask ourselves, are the things we’re going after what we really want, or just want we think we should want.

And sometimes, we know that answer fundamentally in our core; certain that we are FINALLY on the right path.

And that my friends, is a victory unto itself.