Last week we started a 3 part series titled, “The single best way to develop leaders…  Throw them in,” based on the quote below and announced that three extraordinary women would be sharing their stories during this series. To kick the series off former FBI Agent LaRae Quy and the author of “Secrets of a Strong Mind” shared a personal story about how that quote resonated with her. As soon as the story posted, we received these two questions on one of the social media channels: “And three examples prove a theory?”  

• My response, “Great point! I don’t believe three examples will prove a theory… It does paint a picture that success is possible in the midst of very challenging circumstances. I prefer to give people a balance of direction and support.  However, the reality is that at some point in our lives we will all face a time where we are in over our head. It is helpful to have a vision of the good that can come out of those times!”

“Sure but what happens if they fail?”  

• My response, “I deeply believe that there is growth and life and miracles outside of our comfort zones and that people frequently miss out on life because they cling to what is familiar. Check this out: To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd, is to risk their loss.To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure.  But risk MUST be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.”

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This week Dr. Hoda Maalouf a civil war survivor, a professor and department head at Notre Dame University in Lebanon and the mother of twins shares her story.  

“Toward the end of my Master degree, my thesis supervisor invited me to his office to inform me that there is a vacant “Research Assistantship” position in the Lab, and then he asked me if I could handle the job and said: “Hoda you are an excellent researcher, but you have been here only for one year, your English language still weak and the job requires you to do presentations and handle tough meetings”.

Being so broke (as my MS scholarship was about to end), I replied to him on the spot, “Of course I can handle the job, trust me.” Deep down I was scared to death from this new challenge but had no other options in the horizon. I had  several interviews earlier on that month but none succeeded. I come from a French education background and I had to learn English very quickly because of the scholarship I was offered for my MS studies in the UK.

When I told my husband about the job that I was about to start in a couple of days, he asked me the same question as my advisor “Are you sure you can handle it”, I look at him and said, “Do we have other options to survive?” …My husband had started already his PhD but had no scholarship and the loan he took from the bank a year earlier was running out.

I must admit the first couple of months of my job were extremely hard, as I had to read so many books to learn how to do things, write memos, prepare presentations, etc (it was 1991 and there was no Internet access at that time nor Google). I hardly had any weekend off, working continuously on my research and on my self development.

The job was just for one year. Toward its end my supervisor offered me a 3 year contract for a new research assistantship position, but this time he did not ask me any question at all. This second position covered my PhD funding and landed me with a PhD degree later on.”

~ This was the first post of a 3 part series. ~

• Read the first post here: The Single Best Way To Develop Leaders:  Throw Them In!
• Read the third post here:  Making The Leap:  Away From Everyone & Everything I Know And Growing!

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It’s Your Turn!  Please Share:

Have you ever felt thrown in over your head?  How did you handle it?  What did you learn?  How have you grown?  

~ If you know someone that is feeling over their head right now, please share these stories with them and give them a reason to press on!  ~

Next week we will feature a story from Alli Polin, a first-time expat who is beginning the second year of a journey that has taken her from Corporate America in DC to reinventing her life and her profession in the outback in Australia.