The Real World

Life is all about lessons. This week, I learned a lesson about the real world. I learned that even though I'm not willing to give up, I have to accept that I can't always make things happen when others give up. And, that if I'm not in a leadership position, I may not even have a say.

Pre-lay-off, I operated a lot in the corporate world and the over-achiever world. Now, I'm out of those insulated environments, and I'm operating in the real world.

When I first came out of grad school, took my first jobs in marketing, and was given an assignment, failure just wasn't an option. Not in the sense that the program couldn't fail, but certainly in the sense that there wasn't a deadline I didn't meet, there wasn't a thing I felt I couldn't make happen. Of course, I couldn't guarantee success, but I could make sure the opportunity for success happened. I gave everything I had to everything I did, and I could be counted on to make it happen.

Now, as I venture into new worlds, I realize that making it happen, is sometimes outside of my sphere of influence. I learned this lesson early on with my children, and now, I am learning it from the projects I undertake.

This week, I learned just how prevalent "giving up" is. After giving everything I had to two projects which consumed as much time as a full time job, the people I was working with threw in the towel -- before we achieved the objective. This to me was inconceivable. Now it isn't.

And, what did I learn? I'm not sure. Is the answer always to operate from a leadership position? Is it to choose carefully which organizations you choose to work for? Or is it just to keep getting up and starting over?

I think, what I'll take away is to keep getting up and starting over.