Article: Leadership Lessons from Everyday Heroes, by Patricia Fripp

Article: Leadership Lessons from Everyday Heroes, by Patricia Fripp

I ran across this article about a pretty amazing thing that happened when somebody was given a chance, without judgement, and some encouragement. Too bad it's "amazing." It ought to happen more often, but sad to say it doesn't. Too many of us walk around blind, deaf, and acting dumb.

I'll bet we're all a little like this woman - wanting to "blossom," wanting the chance. My salute today goes to Patricia Fripp (and people like her) for looking beyond the ordinary to the potential. Rare beauty.

As I look back on it, I got my "chance" back when I was 35 years old. Somebody I trusted told me I needed to take a look and see how big the hole was I'd dug myself into. I resisted at first, because I'd been defending the position for quite awhile that I wasn't in a hole. I was always the one who was helping everybody else out of Their holes. But something itched inside of me, telling me that here was a "chance." I couldn't fathom the reason, but it felt like I'd better trust him. I really did some soul-searching. I foundthat no, I hadn't dug myself into any hole,... It was a damn bottomless pit. I got myself some information, some help, changed a lot of my associations, and hung on tight to the ones that were good for me. It ended up not being as hard as I had thought it would be. The fear of making the change ended up being the biggest thing, and that was gone when I actually made the changes. Go figure.

At first, I thought it was going to be a lost cause because I thought I was a lost cause - and there were plenty of people who thought so too and made sure I knew about it.

But my friend believed in me when I couldn't. It worked. That friend helped me get a leg up and get going down a different road, to a whole different kind of life. His name wasn't Patricia (thank God) but he did for me a lot of what the author, Patricia Fripp, did for that woman at Shell.

Nowadays, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself doing the same for others. I'm not into rescuing anybody unneccessarily, mind you. All I do is extend my hand, and if somebody wants to take it, they do. And I'm willing to see their potential, even when they can't see it themselves. And I tell the truth as best I see it.

Two big lessons here:

1. You don't extend your hand until you're on solid ground yourself.

2. Don't take the advice of anybody that's more fucked-up than you are.

Well, three lessons:

3. Have the courage to go for what you want. You're no better and no worse than anybody else on the planet. If you find yourself whining about "why me", get a hard look and say instead "why NOT me?!" - about Anything, positive OR negative.

I think a big problem today is that we all think we're just too damn 'special.' We're either "better" or "worse" than anybody and/or everybody else in some way. And then we get all proud of our damn specialness. Hooey! It's a buncha crap.

One of the things I told "my kids" today is that every human being is equal in a quality of potential. But we are NOT equal in capability. We each need to find our own natural capabilities; and if we can't find them, build them - based on what we find interesting. That's when we succeed at finding our own way, just like the woman in the article did.

Enough for today, or I might end up farther up on my soapbox than I already am, and the air is getting pretty thin up here already. I've noticed a tendency I have - the stinkier the crap, the higher I climb up on my soapbox. But even then sometimes I can still smell it. Like now.

Damn. I'll distract myself with work for awhile. That oughta help.