The Leadership Summit

For those of you who know Willowcreek Community Church in IL, you might know that they do an annual leadership telecast. They bring in top-notch leaders to speak on leadership in the various spheres they are in. I brought the DVDs of the telecast with to watch with Ndash (and see for the first time). They are fantastic. I would strongly recommend watching them. Two talks have resonated with me so far and have really spoken to my current situation:

Jessica Jackley. She is the co-founder of KIVA, an online microfinance organization. This year they will exceed $100 million in loans over their history. They have supported over 100,000 entrepreneurs from around the world. Ms. Jackley spoke all about the history of KIVA and why she started it. The bit of advice that really resonated with me is to start small and be patient. This helped encourage and guide me as I have been wondering whether or not to continue applying the the NGO status or wait until we have more plans figured out. Patience is a difficult thing to come by when you are so excited about something and want to get moving on it! Part of me wants to move forward and go, go, go but I know things will go smoother and more efficient later on if I take time to breathe and plan.

Chip Heath and Dan Heath. These are brothers who speak on ideas and innovation. They are consultants to some big name companies. They spoke about a recent book they had written called Switch. What I gained from this talk was that failure is ok because it means you are working to accomplish something. They spoke about a U shaped curve.

At the top of the left-hand side is 'hope'. You have an idea and you hope it will succeed. In my case I had hope that I would submit the NGO application because I thought I needed that to be successful on this trip. The dip in the middle is called 'the valley of insight'. This is where failure happens, when things don't go your way, when you learn through the experience. This is when failure is important because you learn how to do something better and how you need to improve. The top of the left-hand side is 'confidence'. In this there is success of the idea or task. There is resolution. But you couldn't have gotten at this point without the valley of insight. I am at this point now with the NGO application. After hearing from our Board Officers about this, I feel at peace not to submit it now but to wait. I think things will go smoother in the future if we do so.