Excerpt from :: FACE IT! 12 Obstacles that Hold You Back on the Job (2011)
~ by Sandra Ford Walston
Chapter 7 :: Manifest Your Vision— Refusing to Accept Defeat
“Courage is one of the scarcest commodities there is. That’s why it’s a significant source of competitive advantage.”
— David Maister
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What You Do Matters!
Faisal Hoque has been at the forefront of business and technology management for many years, but it was not always that way. Faisal called forth genuine nobility of spirit and depth of vision to overcome a myriad of “no’s” along his workplace journey. An American entrepreneur, Faisal said that if he summed up his entire life, career and all the decisions that he has made, they would boil down to one word: courage! Faisal said, “I have always taken unconventional paths and it has always been about the ‘journey;’ therefore, the topic of courage is something I can relate to, and courage is what I have always lived with.”
His story transcends defeat:
Twenty-three years ago, I had just finished my first summer semester at Southern Illinois University Carbondale after arriving from Bangladesh in 1986. I was 17 and a student of the College of Engineering. After paying my tuition for the summer and fall, I had $700.00 left to survive, secure an education and start my life. I didn’t quite realize how tight of a situation I was in. It was only after facing thermodynamics and advanced calculus that I realized those classes were a breeze compared to what I was about to face.
I met some local students who became good friends. They suggested I introduce myself to the “art and science” of on-campus “janitorial engineering.” So began my expertise in polishing marble floors, cleaning arena bleachers, offices and bathrooms. My friends urged me to request financial assistance going forward. So my “pitching” career began with efforts to set up meetings with the dean, provost and university president. I even gathered the courage to leave hand-written notes on their desks when I cleaned their offices.
It is here in the corridors of Carbondale I experienced rejection when I was told “No” to my request for financial help. The provost began by suggesting I should seriously consider going back home. After much persuasion, the school eventually awarded me a $750 scholarship toward my tuition per semester. Soon after that, I dug deep for the courage to apply to twenty-five universities seeking a full scholarship. With a little help from a friend’s introduction, I received a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota in Duluth, where I would get my next “No,” but one I would rebuff by building my first software/hardware product, which was commercially sold by a local company.
Not long after, I accepted an offer from Pitney Bowes, even though it was not in the financial industry where I initially envisioned myself. From Pitney, I moved onto Dun and Bradstreet and then quickly realized I now had the courage to build my own company, KnowledgeBase.
Fast-forward: I was asked to join GE to help them launch their first B-to-B e-commerce spinoff as one of their youngest business executives at the age of 24. If there was ever time to have courage! Ten years since my journey here began, I started my next company, EC Cubed. We launched in December 1996 and immediately signed up GE as a customer. Less than two years later, after raising millions of dollars from “expert” venture capital firms, and securing top-tier customers, I was about to hear my next “No.”
According to the VCs, the company was not “growing fast enough,” and therefore I was fired as CEO. Not only did I lose my company, I also lost rights to the book manuscript I was working on. But what I did not lose was my dream, or the courage to rebuild it. I returned to the drawing board and wrote another book, then prepared for the launch of my next company, BTM Corporation.
In December 1999, my book was published; I closed our first round of financing and signed up our first customer. We officially opened our doors for business. Since then I have heard many “No’s,” and I am sure there will be more to come. But now, unlike during those days in the corridors of Carbondale, I neither fear nor get frustrated with them. I simply smile because I now know a “Yes” is never far from my grasp.
No one ever lost from having the courage to try.
Billionaire entrepreneur John Sperling holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, but he also studied at “the school of hard knocks,” from which he learned, “Never set a goal. An English historian once observed, ‘He goes farthest who knows not whence he goes.’ There’s much truth to this. If you have a goal, you’re constrained by the goal.”[1] Instead of drawing attention to specific goals, declare your courageous intention and confirm that your DCI mirrors the real you. Whom will you see in this collection of mirrors? Because you will see a genuine smile—the truth always smiles and blind spots fade away.
In the present mode, my business becomes a spiritual experience each day. I attempt to trust each day, no longer inserting my desire to control tomorrow. Sure, I may have committed to conduct a webinar, but that will be and this is now. Such an approach “may not mean that you will change what you do, but it may mean that you may want to change how you see it or hold it, and perhaps how you do it. Once the universe is your employer, very interesting things start to happen, even if someone else is cutting your paycheck.”[2]
Unless you take time to become still in the present moment, you will remain blind to the immense energy you exert attempting to control the future. Familiarizing yourself with a stopping process expedites this self-awareness. “To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, sort of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking.”[3] This consciousness comes from practicing some form of contemplation. Contemplation becomes a support system that keeps you out of the realm of self-defeat and moves you into an unforced unfolding of your essence.
About the Author
Sandra Ford Walston, known as The Courage Expert and innovator of StuckThinking™, is a learning consultant, corporate trainer and courage coach. Sandra’s expertise allows her to focus on the tricks and traps of the human condition through recognizing and interpreting courage behaviors, courageous leadership and individual personality and leadership styles. As such, she is a sought-after speaker for companies and institutions seeking conscious change through personnel development.
The internationally published author of bestseller COURAGE and an honored author selected for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Sandra facilitates individuals and groups to discover the power and inspiration of their everyday courage.
Published in magazines such as Chief Learning Officer, Training & Development and Strategic Finance, she also provides skills-based programs for some of the most respected public and private blue-chip businesses and organizations in the world such as IBM, Caterpillar, Inc., Internal Auditors, Hensel Phelps, Wide Open West, and Institute of Management Accounts.
STUCK 12 Steps Up the Leadership Ladder, Sandra’s follow-up book to COURAGE, is directed at any woman, regardless of title or credentials, who wishes to grow professionally by introducing courage actions at work. Her third book, FACE IT! 12 Obstacles that Hold You Back on the Job confirms that what holds you back on the job is the same as what hinders achievement—the reluctance to face and live a courageous life.
Sandra is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, is a certified Enneagram teacher, and an instructor at the University of Denver. She can be reached at www.sandrawalston.com where she posts a courage blog and courage newsletter.
©2011 All Rights Reserved
[1] Breen, Bill, “The Hard Life and Restless Mind of America’s Education Billionaire,” Fast Company, March 2003, 84.
[2] Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Wherever You Go There You Are, New York: Hyperion, 1994, 208.
[3] Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Wherever You Go There You Are, New York: Hyperion, 1994, 53.
